Shadow Fantasy
by Archtitan
Summary: Set six months after KH2. Mickey sends Sora and Leon on a mission to save two worlds from being swallowed by the darkness, They go to midgar and get team AVALANCHE to help as well. Unaware of the new danger that lurks just beneath the surface.
1. Of Trains Rides & Dreams

(A:N As an author and a person I have my own personality and style so naturally I have my own style of writing. These mean that a person is thinking, " this is when they are talking just so there's no confusion.

Sometimes I can babble on and on but I hope you like my story anyway. By the way in life I'm opposed to swearing but in this story I just can' t help myself! Laughs giddily but becomes serious ahem forgive me the story must go on! Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, cause if I did it would be a whole lot whackier and a lot sadder too, it would also be rated either teen or mature.)

A large black tower stood in the midst of a fiery barren wasteland, the tower was covered thickly in thorny vines that scaled the very tip of the tall monument. No doors lay at the bottom of the tower to allow entrance, in fact the whole tower was completely devoid of any windows or doors save for the one window that lay at the very top.

Inside the top room was a young boy sitting in a tall red chair, much like a throne, white chains on his hands and his feet keeping him immobile. The chains were tied to the walls of the room, ensuring the boy would not escape.

His skin was deathly pale, as if the boy hadn't eaten in days. Long blond hair fell down to the floor with short bangs covering half of his pale face. His eyes were closed, his face giving a sense of peacefulness despite his predicament.

His clothes were a long gray kimono with slits on either side going up to his thighs, black slippers with white cherry blossoms at the tip of each one.

"They're coming master." The boy opened his red eyes looking to the right of him where his servant, Dea, was standing awaiting further orders. A long dark cloak covered him, keeping his appearance hidden in shadow.

"Good. You should be there to greet them, make sure that Saihiri does his job." The boy told him.

"How can you be sure this heartless will follow your orders?" Dea asked him.

"Trust me; he'll have no choice in the matter. I have waited far too long to stop now."

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Chapter one

Of Trains and Dreams

The rain outside seemed to go on forever almost like everything around weighed so great that even the sky wished to bring them down as they rode on the train to Disney kingdom.

Riku hated when it rained it made everything seem so sad and cold and yet when it did he couldn't help but watch the raindrops fall one by one until it stopped; even though it made him unhappy it fascinated him as well.

Lately something about the rain reminded him of something he'd forgotten, he wasn't sure what, but the question constantly bothered him.

Riku turned from staring at the rain to look at Sora his companion who was stretched out haphazardly on the seat across from him sound asleep.

Sora had changed somewhat over the course of a year, he allowed the back of his hair to grow it now went all the way down to his feet and Riku guessed it must've been 4 ft. long now.

Sora kept it in a ponytail so as not to bother him when he was fighting, something he had gotten surprisingly good at but still not good enough to defeat Riku; his face still retained that boyish look, any other person that didn't know him would think he was 13 and not 16.

Yes Sora had changed but not as much as Riku, Riku's hair also grew but not as long as Sora's, he cut it every once in a while in the back so it didn't go too far past his back, the front was long enough it covered his eyes partially but you could still see those striking sea green eyes clearly through his silver tresses.

A lot of other things had changed about Riku as well, mostly to do with the constant dreams he'd been having.

The dream was always of him standing on a pier, situated on the edge of a vast lake. It would be raining in his dream, lightning and thunder striking constantly, but not enough to make him leave.

He'd be soaked through his clothes, freezing, but he still couldn't leave.

He'd look down at his hand and there lay a silver jade pendant, the lightning from the sky would make it shine ever so often making it look even more enchanting than it already was.

And just when he was going to get up he'd feel a tap on his shoulder, and then he'd wake up.

The dream would occur over and over, every night never going past that one point. The strange dreams made him wish he'd have something to keep him busy and take his mind off of them; unfortunately he got his wish in the worst way possible.

Riku knew as well as anyone that a letter from Mickey was hardly ever good.

When they received the letter from King Mickey he had requested they both come to see him as soon as they could, Riku had been excited despite the reason for the visit. Sora had been excited about seeing the little mouse again as well, he was happy despite being wary of the journey they were on and he had reason to be so, the king had sent a letter to Riku that neither Kairi nor Sora knew about.

"Dear Riku, I need you and Sora to be extra careful when you're on the train

to Twilight Town I think there might be someone after Sora but I'm not sure I

can't tell you much for now since I'm still investigating the matter myself,

don't tell anyone who you are and especially don't tell them that you're keybladers.

When you stop in Twilight Town I have a friend there, who knows a friend, who knows

a friend, who knows a friend, that knows a guy there who who's waiting to take you

here he knows who you are so you don't have to worry about finding him. Again be

careful and try to have a nice trip see you and Sora when you get here.

Sincerely, Mickey.

P.S. This is a confidential letter so I trust you can keep a secret I don't

wanna worry Sora."

He smiled softly, thinking about King Mickey always made him smile it really had been too long since he'd seen the little pipsqueak. Donald and Goofy would most surely smother Sora the second he walked through the doors of Disney kingdom, even that didn't deter Sora excitement earlier before he ran out of energy and went to sleep, Sora's words still rung clear in his head, actually the more he thought about it, it seemed more like a song to him.

Flashback Three hours earlier

Sora had practically skipped all the way to the train station like a male Dorothy.

"We're off to see king mickey

the wonder king of Disney, we

hear he is a wonderful king if

ever a king there was, if ever O

a king there was the king mickey is the

one because

because

because

because

because

because

Because of the wonderful things

he does."

"Kairi gave you sugar before we left didn't she?" Riku asked suspicious of his attitude and high energy.

"Only a lollipop" Riku raised his brow disbelieving. "or three and that was all I needed to get myself going." He answered finishing the rest of his last lollipop and throwing the stick in the trash.

"I can't wait to see Donald, and Goofy, and Minnie, and Daisy, and Pluto and especially king Mickey." he said to Riku as they walked to the counter for their tickets.

"Two tickets for Twilight Town please." he asked, the girl working the counter.

He looked towards Sora, who while waiting for Riku was busying himself with seeing how good his balance was by walking on the slim edge of a deep splashing fountain; this particular fountain however had piranhas in it to attract tourists because the fish could change colors so children under 16 were not allowed near it there was a gate that went all around it and a guard at the entrance.

"Sir." she said to him snapping him out of his reverie.

"Here you go sir, your train leaves in exactly 20 minutes." she said handing him the tickets giving him a genuine smile so naturally he smiled back at her and said thank you, and for a second Riku could have sworn she blushed.

He shrugged it off and walked towards Sora who was now spinning in circles on the edge of the fountain while holding his right leg up, silly, but impressive.

Unfortunately for Sora after a while he got dizzy and began to lose his balance. Sora put his right leg down to stop spinning but he was still wavering and flailing his arms to regain his footing, his movements agitated the fish as they began to try jumping out of the fountain, and just when he was about to fall in the water Riku grabbed one end of his jacket in an effort to catch him, this caused his left arm to slip out of his jacket and he ended up dangerously close to falling in but he caught the sleeve in time.

Riku quickly grabbed Sora around his waist and pulled him away from the fountain, Sora however was panting trying to catch his breath looking wide-eyed and absolutely frightened at the deep pool of water he had almost fell into.

"You Okay, Sora?" he asked him.

"Uh-huh." he replied calming little by little, Riku laughed a little at how scared he had been.

"That is why you should never play like that, particularly near piranha infested fountains." Riku scolded him.

"Gomen nasai Riku. So when do we leave?" Sora asked him hastily, He couldn't blame him since he was anxious to leave too.

"We to leave in 10 minutes, we can sit at a bench and wait." They walked out of the gate to a bench nearest to the train they were getting on.

Once they sat down however Sora couldn't keep still, he would tap his foot constantly and twiddle his thumbs, this annoyed Riku to no end and 10 min was growing to feel more like ten hours when finally a female voice boomed over the P.A. system at the train station.

"Now boarding Train 24 to Twilight Town." Saved by the bell Riku thought.

Sora jumped and grabbed his suitcase. "Come on Riku let's go!" Sora said bursting yet again into song. "We're off to see king mickey

the wonderful king of Disney

We hear he is a wonderful king if ever a king there was."

End Flashback

He sighed heavily, his lightly happy mood gone as soon as it came, just when they thought it was all over.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora's P.O.V

As Sora lay down in the compartment to rest he felt his eyes getting heavy, He tried his best to stay awake by shaking his head and rubbing his eyes trying to chase the sleepy feeling away but it was no use, soon he found himself succumbing to sleep hoping and praying he wouldn't have another dream.

His dreams as of late had turned into nightmares.

The dream started out with him in the corridor of a tall tower near a window with Kairi standing across from him, she had a small smile on her face as she looked out the window.

She beckoned Sora over to the window and pointed to the landscape outside, it seemed she wanted him to know just what she found was so amusing.

However when Sora looked he was horrified at what he saw but this only made her smile wider. What Sora could only guess was a forest was now reduced to nothing but ash, the ground scorched, the trees withered away; the entire area had been devastated like someone had sucked the life out of the place and then set it on fire.

When Sora felt a hand caress his cheek he automatically turned but when he looked at her she was no longer herself.

He jumped back startled by the sudden change, but tripped as he did and fell on the floor using his hands to scoot a safer and more further distance to regain his footing.

Once he did he was able to focus more on this new person before him.

This person looked like a replica of him only with different characteristics; the hair on his head was blonde instead of brown and fell behind him going all the way down to his back.

His clothes were a short kimono that went down to his knees with a sleeveless side on his left and one huge sleeve on his right arm that went halfway down to his thigh; the color of the robe was a mixture of dark blue, turquoise, and black. And his eyes, there was almost no way to describe them in place of blue they were blood red; the strange boy tilted his head to the side as he looked at Sora with a positively predatory glint in his eyes.

He started to walk towards Sora and for every one step the boy made Sora took two steps backward.

"Who are you?" Sora asked him but he didn't answer he just smiled and continued with their little game which he knew eventually he would win but Sora was getting irritated.

"I'll ask you again" he said taking out his keyblade, he wasn't 100 sure but he could tell this creature was not human."Who are you?" he asked, this time the boy laughed.

"Silly, do you really think that will stop me?" Suddenly a third arm one that looked transparent and black sprouted out of the boy's back it slipped out of his left side and out the open window.

Sora didn't understand why he was doing this until it was too late, he turned his eyes to the glass window beside him the arm was outside it, he gasped sharply when he saw it, but he didn't have time to react before it broke through shattering the window, glass flying everywhere, and pinned him to the wall.

The arm was obviously much bigger than it had been before for it now covered his entire torso up to his neck, long sharp talons protruding from all five fingers were embedded deeply in the wall effectively keeping him where he was, no matter how hard he struggled to get free.

Finally he stopped to see if the boy was still there surprised to see that he had come much closer to Sora and that they were now face-to-face despite the arm he was still connected to, now that he was closer this boy looked like a scarier version of Roxas with longer tamed hair, the boy gazed at Sora with a look of utter curiosity and wonder.

"Did the massacre outside scare you?" he asked him for a second Sora thought he sounded almost concerned but he could tell he wasn't. Sora couldn't find any way to answer, he just stared at him oblivious as to why he would he ask such a question.

"I did that." He carried on as if what he had done to this place was unimportant; "As you can see I'm--" He paused to playfully trace one of the talons on the hand that kept Sora prisoner. "--Not exactly human. I've never met a keyblade master before that was so young, what's _your_ name?" he asked mocking Sora.

"My name is Sora now let me go!" he shouted, his voice echoing throughout the hall, the boy chuckled slightly stepping away from Sora .

"But that's no fun." He whined, pouting slightly.

"I'm not your playtoy." he retorted.

"You might think so, but in my world anything that exists is my playtoy. I can bend the very fabric of reality any way I wish; but oddly enough you don't seem to be effected by it, that means--" He started walking to sora again putting his hands on either side of Sora's shoulders. "You must have entered as the twilight in my orb, that's why the shield is falling apart."

"The twilight? Shield?" Sora said confused yet again, "Wait just a minute what are you talking about? What orb?"

"You'll understand soon enough Sora but not now, I'll see you another time and when I do you may call me Maldeo (A:N Pronounced Mal-Dey-O)." As soon as Maldeo had finished the hand holding him began to push him into the wall, and Sora thought it might crush him but the walls turned into something like dark quick-sand and he started sinking in slowly.

"No, no stop!" he said struggling to get free before he was completely under.

"Goodbye Sora." He said with a smirk on his face, his name seemed to echo in his mind as he sank into the wall.

Sora by now was panting from exhaustion and he felt himself getting weak no longer able to struggle anymore, starting to feel hopeless, he was now completely submerged in darkness. Sora could still hear the voice saying his name, as he listened he noticed it was now Riku calling out his name over and over it calmed him a little.

"Sora, you gotta wake up." he told him.

But I can't, I'm stuck Riku.

"Come on Sora wake up." Riku told him again.

Sora closed his eyes, and tried concentrating on Riku's voice. He could hear it getting closer so he was sure he was starting to wake up, he could feel someone shaking him but it was a numb feeling like he wasn't in his own body, so he tried harder and got closer; now he could hear Riku's voice clearly so he began to open his eyes and when he did he saw Riku standing over him, he blinked his eyes twice to make sure what he was seeing was real and not the dream.

"Riku!" he exclaimed grabbing him in a bone crushing hug, Riku for his part was now very confused.

"Are you ok?" he asked Sora hesitantly.

Sora released him from his death-grip, and pondered for a second if he should tell Riku about the dream but when he saw the look of concern on Riku's face he decided against it, Later he told himself Riku has more important things to think about other than my dreams.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sora said hurriedly "I just was happy to see you is all." Riku furrowed his eyebrows in a way that told Sora he didn't fully believe what he was saying, so Sora changed the subject.

"Sooo, I know this is really cliche' but are we there yet?"

"Yeah, that's why I woke you up we have to get off the train." Riku said handing him his bag.

"Hmm, that was quick." Sora said to him as they walked out of the compartment and off the train.

"Quick? Sora, you were asleep for 9 hours." He told him.

"Really wow 9 hours sure fly by fast when you're sleeping." Riku laughed.

"Alright now, first thing to do is find a hotel to sleep in for the night then tomorrow we can start searching for this guy we're supposed to meet." Riku started walking to look with sora trailing behind, Twilight Town was different at night then it was in the day, the alleys and buildings around seemed darker than normal and the rain only added to the strange feeling that lingered in the air.

"Haha." Faint laughter caught Riku's attention, he turned to his right and saw a boy in an alley, his back leaning on a building just a few feet away from them. His red eyes stared intently at them, a small smile on his face. His long raven black hair fell behind his back in a ponytail that reached to his knees.

He wore a short white kimono decorated with black cherry blossoms at the bottom ends, and on each sleeve; strapped to his feet were traditional japanese sandals with strings that laced up to his thigh on each leg. Such odd clothing. Riku thought.

"And just who might you be?" Riku asked the boy.

His smile grew wider. "An old friend."

Sora realized something was strangely familiar about this boy, in fact he looked just like the other one. But this one seemed different, somehow not as frightening or malicious.

Riku smirked."Funny, I don't remember you."

"It was a long time ago, I'm not surprised you don't." The boy replied as he walked into the street light so that they could view him better. Riku now noticed the katana on the boys' right hip, much like his clothes, the sheath was white with black cherry blossoms.

"What's with the sword?"

"Hahaha, you ask an awful lot of questions very strange."

"What I find strange is how you're avoiding my question." Riku retorted.

"Don't worry Seiya, I have nothing to hide." He replied. A look of surprised immediately came across his face, that name sounded familiar.

"What did you call me?"

"Hmph, something for you to think about." He turned back toward the alley and started to walk away.

"Hey! Come back here and answer me!" Riku shouted.

"You need no answers for that question from me, as for the sword it's for protection. There are dangerous things here and they always come out at night. I'd be careful if I were you." And with that the strange boy was gone just as soon as he'd come.

"Hey Riku what was that about?" Sora asked the elder boy.

"I'm not sure." He replied.

The two sighed simultaneously, and kept on walking as the rain began to pour down harder.

They walked for a long while what Riku could only guess was probably an hour when he started to feel as if something was wrong.

A chill ran through Riku causing him to shiver slightly making Sora ask if he was alright, he nodded yes but Sora could see something was wrong.

Suddenly Riku stopped in his tracks, and Sora not paying much attention walked straight into him.

"What is it Riku?" he asked him, but he didn't answer so sora tried to look over Riku's shoulder and the only thing he saw was some person in a cloak standing no more than 5 ft. away from them, in the darkness of night Sora couldn't make out a face but he could clearly see the person was staring at them.

Riku unfortunately had a pretty good idea who it might be, but still in the back of his mind he prayed he was wrong.

Don't do anything Riku just leave him alone. He grasped sora's arm and tried to backing away this didn't seem to bother the person, but when he heard a dull thud behind him he turned to find someone just like the other one but not as tall standing behind them as well, Oh no. now they had no way out.

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I hope that wasn't too confusing or boring for anyone, I'm gonna type the next chapter and put it up as soon as I can but I gotta know what you think about so please R/R I beg of you.

Kingdom Hearts RULES!


	2. The Lost

The Lost

Tai-Shan Tzuzuki lay half-asleep on his bed with his legs hanging off the side of the bed; shoulder length blond hair sprawled out on his blue pillow case wearing his jean shorts and a short sleeved shirt that was at least 2 sizes too big for him.

He'd been waiting patiently for his roommate Leon to come home and so far he'd been waiting for 2 long hours. The young soldier was usually home at the same time every evening but this night he was late, Tai wasn't sure why but he knew calling would be a last resort. Leon hated it when people called him.

In his right hand he held a black phone, clutching the device tightly.

He could feel himself slipping slowly into a deeper sleep and shook his head to better fight against it. This came to no avail as the need to sleep became stronger and he felt his eyes grow heavier till they finally closed.

"RING!"

Jade eyes popped open and the young boy jumped up.

"RING!"

But he unfortunately realized too late how very close he was to the edge of the bed and fell hard to the floor.

"RING!"

'Just one more ring!' He thought frantically.

He stood up and searched his bed finding the cell phone hidden between the sheet and comforter.

He flipped it open and pressed talk. "Hello?"

"Tai-Shan I've got a favor to ask you."

"Leon? Where are you?" He asked with concern.

"Aww, don't tell me you've been worried about me?" Leon said teasing him playfully.

"NO! It's just that I don't know how to work the oven very well and I wanted to make pizza tonight." He mentally kicked himself in the head for offering up such a terrible answer.

"Right," He replied sarcastically. "Anyway, I need you to check on a few friends of mine. They're supposed to have been there by now; and seeing as you haven't called screaming in my ear that there are strangers in the house and I didn't warn you to make more food, I'm guessing they haven't arrived."

"You guess correct." He could hear something that sounded very closely to a sigh.

"This isn't good, look go into town see if you can find them. One's just a little shorter than me, silver hair and jade eyes; the other one is about your height with brown hair and blue eyes."

"Okay, I Got it." He repeated the description mentally before grabbing his coat and heading toward the door.

Despite his attempts to hide it, Tai could hear the worry in Leon's voice.

"I'll bring them back Leon." He reassured the man before saying farewell and closing the phone.

He threw on his coat; walking over to a nearby wall he grabbed his best sword and sheath and tied the weapon to his waist and rushed out the door closing it soundly behind him.

The sun was setting in Twilight Town and that meant only one thing, the Heartless would be coming out soon. He wouldn't have the strength to fight so many of them, unless…

He unsheathed the sword and held it close in the middle of his chest with the hilt facing the ground.

He closed his eyes and focused all and any of his energy to the weapon he held in his hands, in his mind he could remember vaguely his old master; the man who'd taught how to use magic.

'If I had any choice at all, any paths to take but this one you know that I would use it. Please… forgive me Sensei.'

He opened his eyes and watch as the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, its bright light swallowed up by the dark shadow of night.

Sheathing the weapon back in the silver scabbard the blond looked around the vast majority of buildings surrounding their house; the tallest one was situated right in front. A hotel that had been recently remodeled; he walked into the hotel heading straight for the elevator and pushing the rooftop button.

The ride up to the roof was a long one, since there was over 10 floors in the hotel, and every floor someone would come inside the elevator and try to get downstairs.

After at least 10 minutes of getting stopped at each floor he decided to take the stair which proved to be a good and bad idea. He managed to get to the roof faster, but he also exhausted more energy climbing the stairs.

From this height he could reach the clock tower, after leaping to the roof of the building he spotted the two teens that Leon had described to him.

But as could be expected someone had caught them before Tai-Shan could.

Two Heartless had cornered Riku and Sora now he had to find a way to get them away to safety while trying to fight heartless at the same time.

He could jump down but first he had to find a way to do so. He spotted a brick building in situated in front of the clock tower, if he used the Widow then maybe...

He backed away from the edge and then ran toward the end jumping off unsheathing his sword.

"Spin your web Black Widow!"

The words echoed through the town square attracting both sides to the source of the noise, they looked toward the clock tower just in time to watch as the boy fell from the incredible height.

He held a sword in his hand pointing the tip toward the ground.

Metal chains began forming around the sword from the hilt to the tip, unraveling one strain after another to reveal more and more forming.

The first ring of chains shot at the ground burying themselves deep inside, the second ring of chains crossed in-between the buildings surrounding them. And the third ring quickly wrapped around the heartless before digging in the ground as well creating a firm hold, the heartless were for the moment unable to move.

The boy flipped in the air landing firmly on a chain that had stuck itself in-between two buildings. Now facing the heartless he stood and raised his sword; making Riku believe that he might use the spell he'd cast before again but he paused, turning slightly to the side and inclining his head to look at Riku and Sora almost as if he'd just noticed the two were even there.

"Go! Get out of here." He shouted to the pair.

"You can't expect us to just leave you here." Said Riku.

"We don't have time to argue about this, just run. I can handle them."

The two hesitantly followed Tai's orders, sprinting off through a maze of buildings. Although they didn't get very far before one of the heartless busted out of the chain web and moved to attack them from behind.

Tai raised his hand in their direction bringing up a criss-cross steel fence that rose to 100 ft. high between the heartless and Sora and Riku. The heartless attempted to burst through the fence and received an electric shock for his effort.

"Your fight is with me not them."

"This won't hold me forever." He replied icily.

"They don't have to." Tai retorted.

The heartless held up a gloved hand and immediately a ball of black smoke swirled in the palm of his hand spreading out to form a spear with a broad blade at the end.

The creature took hold of the giant spear and rushed swiftly toward the teen, his weapon bearing down on him.

Tai jumped back to avoid the attack leaving the heartless to slice at air, this however seemed to be exactly what the heartless had wanted.

The heartless smiled in triumph as the tip of his blade began to glow a blue, he plunged the spear into the ground sending wave after wave of electricity hurtling towards Tai. The current raced toward him, too fast to avoid or escape, trapping him.

"AAAHHH!" He screamed as the shocks racked his body.

The pain was unimaginable, the just as intense. He tried desperately to remain standing but the current proved too much to bear and he crumpled to the ground, writhing in agony.

The heartless chuckled sinisterly while he tortured the boy.

"Music to my ears." He said cruelly.

'I've got no choice,' He thought to himself as he raised his sword off the ground. 'If I don't use its power now I'll lose, and then they'll be captured.'

He raised the katana as high and then pushed it two feet into the ground sending out a ripple that shook the ground around them; almost instantly the current of electricity disappeared leaving one exhausted Tai and two very surprised heartless.

The sword started to hum, its soft song resonating throughout the square.

'Alright now, get up!' Tai gripped the sword tightly feeling the energy from it flowing into his body.

At last he stood and stared the heartless with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"That the best you can do?" He taunted.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, you've barely even seen a fraction of my power." The heartless replied.

"Likewise, but I'm curious about your friend behind me, he hasn't moved an inch since we started."

"He doesn't like violence, he prefers a more subtle way of fighting and besides I don't need his help."

Tai scoffed. "Now who's being cocky? How strong you are really doesn't matter anymore at this point, you won't win this fight."

His opponent growled with resentment. "I've had enough of you!"

He charged at Tai, his halberd poised to strike and spear the boy through but as soon as the blade made contact with his body it went straight through him.

Tai looked down at his stomach; the spear had gone halfway through his body.

"What?" The heartless stared in amazement.

He turned his head to look at his counterpart as the heartless started laughing. "He told you before didn't he Hakujou?"

"What the hell are you talking about Gai?"

"I told you before," Said Tai staring the man in the face. "You won't win this fight."

The heartless ripped his weapon away from Tai's stomach standing back to look at him.

"You did something." He said with suspicion.

"The moment that I put my sword into the cement, you ceased to be in the world that was Twilight town." Tai explained.

"Then where are we?" He asked.

"We're standing in an illusion Hakujou." Gai replied.

He glared at the taller man in spite. "You _knew_ about this?"

"From the minute he stuck his sword in the ground, just wanted to see how long it would take for you to figure it out."

"You worthless little---"

"Listen," Tai interrupted. "I really hate to leave you guys but unfortunately I have some things to take care of."

With a wave of his hand Tai disappeared leaving the two to figure out how to escape.

"Tell me you can get us out of here so I can beat that scrawny brat to a pulp!" He snarled.

"I can but it'd take a while, by the time we're out we won't be able to catch them."

Hakujou sighed. "The king isn't going to be happy about this, at least Tomako will have to take the brunt of his anger."

"And then we'll have to deal with Tomako, who would you rather face? Him or the king?"

The man thought for a moment. "Definitely him."

Tai-shan appeared on the other side of the fence he'd put up around the square, right near the entrance to the path he'd sent Riku and Sora down. He fell to the floor, his chest heaving trying desperately to get much needed air into his lungs. Something about using that side of his power, every time he came out of it he felt like he was suffocating.

His head was throbbing, his legs felt like jelly and he wasn't sure he had much strength left inside. But if he just used it once more, he held the katana at eyelevel watching as the blackness of the sword consumed another part of it, now only 1/3 still remained silver.

Yet it was a price he was willing to pay.

Relief filled his heart as he felt the familiar energy surging through his body once again.

'Just a little longer,' Tai thought with assurance. 'Just a little while longer.'

He raised his hand and a chain shot out through the building behind him him slipping easily through the fence and flying ahead of him. He grabbed onto the chain letting it pull him forward, he relaxed his arm but his hand held firm; with a sharp tug he lifted himself into the air flipping once before landing back down onto the moving chain. It supported his weight easily though the chain seemed flimsy; this ability achieved by the magic that flowed through the metal it was made of.

'Just hold on.'

Sora and Riku raced through the odd path of buildings stopping at a junction of buildings that had been built very close together every inch of the place seemed topsy turvy.

"This way!" Sora shouted, pointing to a street leading out of the crossroads.

Riku followed him looking behind him for a moment to see if they were being followed, and unfortunately his suspicion was confirmed when he found what looked to be at least 30 heartless coming after them and getting closer!

Riku realized that was what made Sora speed up as well and he followed suit.

"This is bad!" said Sora.

"I know!" Riku replied.

"Uhh Riku what do we do?" Sora asked him.

A second chain rose from the ground this time going over their heads and digging itself into a taller building far ahead of them carrying the stranger from before on top.

"Listen, you have to jump onto the building in front and climb it."

"Are you out of your mind?! We can't jump that!" Riku told him.

"Don't worry I'll help you." Riku glanced up at him with disbelief.

"Trust me." He pointed his finger towards the heartless coming after them.

Two chains split through the group of heartless running after them cutting down the number by at least four or five by Riku's count.

The chains wrapped themselves around Sora and Riku's wrist securing them before dragging the both of them by the arm towards the building at an even faster pace than the one they were at before; the two tried they're best to keep up as they listened to the stranger give them instructions as of what to do.

"When you get to the building, grab onto the chain with both hands and hold on tight I'll pull you up."

He jumped off of the chain landing on one of the buildings beside them, he ran along side of them and the two tried to keep up with his speedy pace.

They reached the wall of the building; Riku did as instructed and grabbed the chain with both hands. He bent his knees, and jumped up the chains pulling him up the rest of the way. Sora had tried to do the same thing but failed somewhat to where he was practically being dragged by the chain.

The boy took pity on Sora and jumped onto the chain, grabbing him by the waist and helping him up the rest of the way.

Once they climbed on top the two collapsed onto the cement roof in exhaustion.

"You can't stop now that building won't hold them for long they'll find another way up!"

"Look," Said Riku standing up shakily. "Thanks for saving us and all but don't you think you could give us a little bit of a break, okay? We're tired."

"Yeah and I don't think I can walk anymore." Sora interjected still lying on the ground, but the stranger still persisted.

"You don't understand, I know these creatures they're not gonna stop until they get what they ----."

A strange dark blue crescent shaped light cut through the darkness of Twilight Town, slicing Riku squarely in the back.

He screamed in pain as it hit falling to the ground, it felt like something was trying to eat its way into his body, his mind, his soul. Probing, and probing splitting through flesh and bone till it hit its mark; soon Riku's body went numb and all senses completely shut down, and he fell unconscious.

The last thing he heard was a strangely familiar voice talking to him in the back of his mind.

"_Hello Saiya, oh it's so wonderful to see you again." _

The voice let out an eerie and cold laugh, the very sound choking him with fear right down to his core.

————————————————————————————

"Riku!" Sora shouted. He got up and rushed over to his fallen friend, Sora turned him over shaking him by the shoulders and calling his name in an effort to wake him.

"Riku! Riku! Riku come on please wake up."

The stranger walked behind Sora watching as he tried to wake the silver boy up.

"I'm sorry to do this." He said softly, Sora was unable to hear him focusing all his attention on Riku.

So he was unable to stop the stranger from hitting him on the side of the neck with his hand knocking him unconscious. He fell to the cement beside Riku and the stranger raised his sword towards the sky saying the spell of chains once more.

"Spin your web Black Widow."

————————————————————————————

Sora lay asleep on a large canopy bed, long sheer silk blue curtains hung from the top of it falling and rising swiftly with the morning breeze, blue cotton sheets covered the bed with the matching comforter lying on the floor having fallen during the night when Sora was tossing and turning.

One leg hung off of the bed while the other was tangled in the blue sheets.

The room he slept in had shelves filled to the brim with dusty books, a few weapons hung from the walls most of them looking worn or battle hardened.

Tai stood in the doorway watching him sleep with curiosity, his arms folded against his chest.

Sora's eyebrows creased in slight frustration and for a second and he thought that the teen might wake up, but Sora just turned to his side a smile gracing his lips as he found a comfortable position and resumed sleeping.

Tai heaved a heavy sigh letting his arms fall to his sides, turning towards the door to leave the room.

"_Tai." _a faint voice called out his name startling him, turning his attention back to the room.

He looked around cautiously trying to find the source of the voice but nothing seemed out of place. He looked at the bed; the brunette still lay tangled in the sheets asleep.

He furrowed his blonde brows disconcerted. "_Oh Tai." _the voice called again this time sounding clearer, making his heart skip a beat.

"_Come here Tai."_ the eerie voice was light and serene but it held a soft growl underneath it that sent shivers up his spine.

'Come on now Tai, you're just hallucinating.'

Maybe about the voice he thought, but he couldn't deny that he felt something in the room. 'Guess it doesn't hurt to check.' Tai said to himself taking an unsure gulp and walking up to the bed.

He pulled back the drapes but all he found was Sora lying sound asleep, he sighed in relief.

"Hey Tai." He released a soft gasp turning to see Leon standing in the doorway.

The man gestured with his hand for Tai to come to him. With one last look at the sleeping boy Tai left the room and closed the door.

"How's Riku?" Leon asked him; at the mention of the other teen's name Tai's expression became cold and angry.

"He's fine." He said curtly. Leon raised his brow in disbelief.

"Did you check him?" He asked.

Tai nodded in reply.

"What are you going to do when they wake up?" He asked changing the subject.

"Can't wait till they wake up, I'm going to have to leave now. Get Sora up and get him ready, I'll take care of Riku."

Tai nodded and went back into the room, Sora had changed position and was now lying on his stomach; turning in his sleep had made the sheets wrap around him even more and Tai contemplated unraveling him but decided to let him wake up in the cocoon he'd unknowingly made for himself.

He crawled onto the bed, rolled Sora over onto his back and proceeded in poking him to wake him up. Sora didn't respond at first but then he let out an annoyed moan and turned to his side falling back to sleep. But Tai didn't give up he rolled him over again and started lightly shaking the brunette's shoulder to wake him.

"Just five more minutes Riku." He moaned.

Tai sighed and his head shook.

Then he noticed just how close the boy was to the end of the bed and smirked, an idea sparking into his head. He crawled to Sora's right side bent down to his ear.

"SORA!" he shouted, Sora yelled and leaped up at the sudden noise or at least he tried to. Being so entangled in the sheets he struggled to free himself and ended rolling off the bed and falling hard on the floor.

"Ow." Said sora.

Tai had to stifle his laughter as he watched the boy fight with the bed sheets to release him before he was successful in doing so. Sora crawled up to the bed and laid his head down panting. It took him awhile before he finally noticed there was someone else on the bed.

————————————————————————————

Sora looked up to see a boy, about his age from the look of him, lying on the bed. Green eyes were lit with a mischievous kind of amusement; short blond bangs fell to side of his face drawing more attention to his oddly light complexion. The boy could almost pass for a girl as pretty as he was.

"Hey you're that kid from last night."

"Good morning, you sleep like a zombie." Sora blushed at his comment.

"Yeah, sorry guess." He replied releasing a big yawn. "I'm still exhausted from---"

Sora gasped as the events of last night flashed into his mind. "Riku!"

"Its alright he's fine, he's resting in my room."

Tai slid off the bed and heading towards the door, he stood up starting to follow him but she stopped before she reached the door.

She turned her head slightly to the side to talk to him without stepping away from the door.

"You might wanna get dressed first." His suggestion caused him take in his appearance, he blushed again realizing he was dressed in just a small tee and a pair of shorts much like his own but a little smaller.

"I hope you don't mind, I figured you wouldn't be comfortable in sleeping in your regular clothes so I changed them." He explained opening the door and stepping through.

He sighed as he looked around for his clothes, spotting them neatly folded on a desk.

————————————————————————————

Leon sat in his room by the bedside checking Riku's vital signs, when Tai had brought him in he had told him to let Riku sleep in his room while Sora slept in Tai's.

Leon had told Tai to watch over him all night and in the morning they would switch places.

When they had Riku was still asleep. He'd expected Sora to sleep like a log he normally did but Riku?

The way Tai described the attack on the two particularly intrigued Leon as well…

Well at least he's still breathing. He said inwardly, but still he worried.

This wasn't the plan, he was supposed to find them before the heartless could. And now Riku had paid the price for his mistake.

Flashback

_Leon sat in his desk chair looking at the monitor if front of him displaying the King of Disney Kingdom, Mickey._

"_Sorry for calling so late." Mickey apologized._

"_Don't be silly, besides I always go to sleep late. So what's so urgent?"_

"_Well you know how I told you there'd be a meeting soon and I needed you to come?" Leon nodded. "Unfortunately there's two more people I need you to pick up on the way and take with you._

_Normally I would be getting them myself but I think it's better if I let you and Tai wait for them. There are some things here that I need to sort out."_

_Leon understood perfectly what Mickey was asking but it raised his curiosity for the mouse King to be so vague. There was something more going on than just a few missing stars._

"_When are they arriving?" Mickey let loose a nervous grin._

"_Uhh, tonight actually." _

"_What?!" _

"_I know it's awfully short notice and I'm really sorry but I'm afraid it couldn't be helped."_

_Leon took one glance at his watch and immediately wished he hadn't, it was already 5:45 and the sun was already setting. As far away as he was from town he wouldn't get to them before the sun was down._

"_You will be able to get them, won't you Leon?" _

"_Don't worry, they'll be at the meeting. Is there anything else Mickey?" He asked._

"_No that's all, be careful on your way back." Mickey replied._

_The two exchanged goodbyes and with a flicker Mickey disappeared from the screen leaving a very confused Leon behind to sort out his cryptic message._

_Mickey had most definitely been trying to tell him something. And the way he answered his last question let Leon know that whatever it was could only be said in person._

'…_There are some things here that I need to sort out.'_

_It was too much to consider now, he'd have to mull over it later._

_He reached a hand into his jacket pocket fishing out his silver phone and dialing Tai's number._

'_Tai will probably reach them sooner than I can, hopefully they'll be safe till he can get to 'em.'_

End Flashback

'The sooner I get him to Mickey the better, maybe he'll know what to do.'

Leon turned his head partially towards the door knowing that Tai was there silently watching him.

"What is it Tai?" The sandy blond shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing, the other one is up and getting ready. He should be in the garage soon." Tai told him.

"Hmm, good you know you _can_ call him by his name." Leon said teasingly, Tai rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

Leon turned back to the bed sat Riku up against the bars of the bed, then he pulled him onto his back carrying him towards the door, Tai moved out of his way and walked behind him to the garage.

"So... how's he doing? Your friend I mean." Tai asked.

"He's pretty much fine he still hasn't woken up yet, but I was under the impression you could care less about his condition." Leon replied raising an eyebrow at Tai, Tai however turned his gaze towards the floor suddenly finding the design of tile very interesting.

"Just natural curiosity that's all." He said hurriedly going ahead of Leon and into the garage. "Huh, _right." _Leon mumbled continuing towards the garage.

————————————————————————————

Darkness engulfed Riku as he lay on the brink of eternity, not thinking nor moving just floating. His eyes shut since there was no point in opening them, for there was nothing he could see in this strange place; he felt as if he were in water, almost as if he were at the bottom of the ocean where there was nothing but darkness.

He thought that maybe he should be afraid, terrified even but he wasn't, he couldn't shake the feeling like he had been here before.

Wherever here is that is.

"_Come on now don't just lay there Riku." _He heard a voice say to him, he opened his eyes but all around was nothing but the darkness. He closed his eyes but yet again the voice spoke to him this time sounding more familiar.

"_Riku quit being lazy and get up!" _It said to him.

"Kairi?" he asked.

"_That's right and you better get up or else Riku!" _She demanded. _"You can't give up now you still have more work to do, and Sora needs your help, you know that silly baka can't take care of himself." _He chuckled smiling softly at her words.

"You're right."

"_Have I ever been wrong? Don't answer that, just get up."_

"Hai!" He replied.

Suddenly he felt himself being lifted slowly in the darkness, feeling himself rising higher and higher. A strange tingling enveloped his body, he felt a light pressure on his face like snowflakes falling down on him except the feeling wasn't cold.

He opened his eyes finding himself no more engulfed in the abyss, no in fact he was bathed in light.

Riku raised his hand to his face shielding his eyes from the bright sun that beamed down upon him.

Once he got used to the light he looked around realizing he'd woken up in a field of daisies; like the darkness he was normally used to the field seemed to go on forever. He sat up and the realization that his clothes had changed dawned on him.

He wore white leather gloves, a dark gray V-necked shirt and a long black jacket. Black pants, and laced up dark blue boots that went up to his knees covering the bottom portion of his pants, each bore a small buckle at the top of them.

A sense of déjà vu' came over him as he took in his appearance, it was an odd feeling kind of like---

That weird tingling he'd felt before.

He thought that to be the only plausible answer, but the why still bothered him. He pondered this for a moment but then a glimmer of light in the distance in front of him caught his eye; he stood up and began walking towards it.

It was hard to walk, his entire body felt slightly heavy almost like there was something in the air something he couldn't see only feel.

Regardless he kept on walking soon he got used to the odd pressure, finally close to the source of the glimmer he'd seen earlier.

He looked down to see a silver pendant its chain caught on a daisy realizing it had been light from the sun shining off the metal of the pendant that had caused it. He picked it up and held it in his hand to get a closer look; the pendant had a small gem on it, the color of jade shaped like a heart.

It was just like the one he'd seen before in his dreams.

As he gazed upon the small necklace a memory flowed into his head.

A young boy sat by an open window sill, his short silver hair flowing with the gusts of wind coming through.

A content smile gracing his face, his jade eyes stared out towards the outside.

Blue and white pajamas adorned his small form, the same jade pendant wrapped around his neck.

Riku gasped, shaking the mental image from his mind; that felt almost familiar to him.

But what was that? _Who_ was that?

A loud sound broke through his train of thought like that of a big engine, that was when he began to take notice of a huge shadow coming over the entire field engulfing him as well; he turned jumping back in surprise as he did when he saw a huge hovering mansion coming towards him.

The closer it got the louder the sound, so loud he had to cover his ears as it was beginning to give him a headache; finally the house stopped moving and the sound coming from it slowly quieted to a barely audible hum.

As he stared at the abnormally big house he noticed that he could hear faint voices, angry voices.

'It sounds close so they can't be too far away.'

He circled the large house taking in some of its strange features, most of the bottom was covered by some odd metal that wavered and shifted over it like water, every so often the movement of the metal would still and formed five huge holes at the bottom blowing out a gust of hot air before closing up and moving around again.

The entire house was made out of a mix of metal and wood, at some parts like the bottom there would be the liquid metal that covered it, and most of the other parts were made of wood.

"What an odd house." Riku mumbled.

He turned his attention to the top of the house as he searched for the source of the voices, he could hear them getting louder as he got closer.

Till he stood in front of balcony where he could see two men arguing very animatedly at each other, one of them was tall and thin he looked maybe thirty or forty, blue eyes and pale skin with jet black hair.

His face bore a fatigued expression so Riku guessed they had been at this for a while. He wore a white button up shirt with dark grey slacks, rather simple attire.

The other one was almost the exact opposite of the first, he looked maybe five or six years older than Riku.

He was a little shorter than the other, dark brown eyes with long fiery red hair that fell down his shoulders accenting his lightly tanned skin. He wore a regular white tee shirt and blue shorts that went down to his knee cap. Much more sporty than his counterpart, in fact the two seemed like exact bipolar opposites.

Riku's first thought was to ask the pair questions but he found himself intrigued by their heated conversation.

"This idea is not going to work Virgil!" The elder one shouted.

"And yours will?! Correct me if I'm wrong Dimitri but we don't exactly have all the tools to make your machine work, and even if we did there's no telling that it would actually do anything."

"Well correct _me_ if _I'm _wrong but aren't you the one who said we should do everything we can to get out of here?"

"I said that a very long time ago D, besides I'm very content with just staying here anyway."

"With _HIM _out there?!" Dimitri shouted. "With him constantly coming after us?"

"He hasn't come after us in a while!" Virgil shouted back.

"That doesn't mean he won't which is all the more reason to finish it and destroy him!"

"And exactly how do you expect to do that without a---"

The two men paused, and simultaneously looked down at him, his eyes widened slightly with surprise at being so quickly caught.

The younger of the two narrowed his eyes and then gasped in shock his eyes opening to the size of saucers.

"It couldn't be!" He exclaimed.

The other man looked at the younger one and hit him hard on the head.

"Oww!" He yelled glaring at the elder in pain, rubbing his head and glaring angrily at the man.

"Who are you?" The eldest asked Riku.

"My name's Riku." He said.

The man looked almost disappointed in his answer while the other one looked plainly bewildered.

"I'm Dr Dimitri Velshdein, This man is my colleague Virgil."

Dr. Virgil waved his hand flashing him a silly grin, Riku politely but nervously returned the gesture.

"Exactly what brings you here?" Virgil asked him.

"Well I'm not exactly sure how I got here; to be honest I don't even know where here is." He replied.

"Well then!" Virgil shouted, disappearing from the balcony and coming back with a rope ladder. "We certainly can't leave you here stranded all by yourself." He threw the ladder over the side of the house and it fell against the balcony and dropped down, dangling almost tentatively in front of Riku.

Riku stared at the ladder unsure; the ladder wasn't like normal ones.

The planks were made of the same liquid metal as the house was, but this seemed much more unstable since the planks metal didn't look altogether steady. The rope the metal planks were tied to had a marble shaped glowing ball that stood in-between the rope and metal it seemed to keep the planks in place, even as they wavered and sloshed about.

"Come on now don't be shy!"

Riku smiled nervously and grabbed a hold of the rope, he took a deep breath and placed his right foot in the first step, Riku let out a sigh as it solidified underneath him and began climbing the steps with a little more assurance that he wouldn't fall through it.

————————————————————————————

"I don't think this is a good idea Virgil." Dimitri said lowly, hoping the boy coming up the ladder couldn't hear them speaking.

"Well what do you expect us to do? Leave him here by himself, with that thing out there?" Virgil hissed.

Dimitri scoffed. "I can't believe you just turned my own words against me."

Virgil sighed heavily and pulled his friend away from the balcony as he could see that Riku was getting closer with each step as they spoke.

"Look you know as well as I do that we both want to find out for sure if it's really him; come on you can't deny that you haven't thought about it. He looks like him, dresses like him, talks like him."

"That doesn't mean he's him!" Dimitri spat.

He turned towards the door to go in the house but before he could turn the handle his friend spoke.

"Will you torture yourself forever D? It wasn't your fault; don't you believe that at all?" He asked, hoping to get a response or some form of an answer from him but Dimitri said nothing.

He heard the door open and turned to see Dimitri standing there, his head turned slightly to the side towards Virgil.

"No I don't because it was my fault Virgil. He's dead and nothing we say or do, no one we see that looks like him is going to change that. We screwed up, we made a big mistake but I'm going to fix it."

With that said he walked into the house and shut the door not bothering to help Virgil welcome the young man in.

But Virgil wasn't surprised, usually when the subject of the past was brought up, particularly _that, _Dimitri wouldn't speak to anyone at all he'd shut himself in the house, and close off to anyone.

Which made Virgil sad, if Dimitri never faced his fears and pain how was he going to get over them?

"Umm, excuse me can you please help me?"

Virgil turned around and saw the source of the distress was Riku; he'd had trouble getting onto the balcony and ended up getting tangled in the rope ladder.

Virgil grabbed a hold of him giving a hard tug but the ladder was tied around his leg. Virgil managed to untie but he had trouble getting him over and ended up making them both fall over onto the balcony floor; Virgil got up and dusted himself off, taking a moment to look at the young boy now that he was much closer to him than before.

He still wore the same clothes from that day, and that necklace.

It has to be him, there was no other explanation. Why else would come here? Why else would he be wearing it?

"Sorry about causing you so much trouble." Riku apologized.

"What? Don't be ridiculous it's no trouble at all. I'm always happy to help someone in need."

He said with a smile, Riku returned the smile half-heartedly as he looked around for the other scientist.

"Oh, you'll have to forgive Dimitri but I'm afraid he's taken to his room for now, he probably won't come out till later in the evening."

Virgil could tell by Riku's expression that the boy was slightly disappointed, he was as well.

"Why don't you come and rest as well," He said opening the door beckoning him to come inside. "I imagine you're very tired."

Virgil thought Riku might protest but he accepted the invitation, walking towards the door.

"That does sound nice; I actually do feel a little tired."

————————————————————————————

"The Gummi ship is ready Leon once I open the garage we are cleared for take off." Tai was at the controls putting in codes and coordinates for Leon, he had told him they were to leave immediately and Tai had tried the best he could to be quick about it but with Sora watching him it sure didn't make his job any easier.

After 15 minutes Sora had proceeded to try to push any and every button he could find to figure out it's exact function.

After the first 30 minutes Tai was convinced Leon had sent the boy to annoy him to test his patience, which he had very little of.

After 40 minutes Tai had grabbed some rope and tied the hyper boy to a chair in front of the control board so that he could watch him and make sure he didn't mess with anything.

But even this didn't slow him down, Sora had somehow managed to get a pair of scissors and untie himself from the chair. Now he was annoying Tai non-stop which only fueled Tai's resolution to get the ship in the air as fast as he could so that he might retain what was left of his sanity.

'Just what the hell was this boy on? Probably that drop of coffee that idiotic Leon left in his mug, I pity the poor fool that gives him a whole cup!'

"Hahaha, 'Cleared for take off' you sound like ones of those weird pilots." Sora said laughing uncontrollably. "Ow!"

Leon had come up behind the boy and hit him on the head.

"That's because he _is_ a pilot Sora. Tai is the one who built this Gummi ship."

"With the help of Donald of course." The blond youth added.

Sora's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "You know Donald?"

"Well I wouldn't say I know him, I haven't seen him in a while so he probably wouldn't recognize me. But yeah he taught me how to pilot the Gummi ship and use magic." He replied.

"You mean magic like that spell you used on those heartless last night?"

Tai froze, his fingers were shaking slightly with the effort to hold them steady over the keyboard, and his eyes looked down at his hands clenching them into fists, his face twisted in an angry grimace.

Sora was worried by Tai's reaction and reached to put his hand on his shoulder but Leon stopped him.

"I think that's enough questions for one day Sora, get in your seat it's time to leave."

Leon's words were firm and left no room for protest, Sora went to his seat and began the tedious task of strapping himself in.

"You knew you were going to have to face him sooner or later, what better time than now?"

Tai shook his head, his hair ruffling as he did.

"It isn't that it's just... What am I supposed to say to him? He told me to never use that spell, to never use that power but I did it anyway. He made me promise him Leon."

"You did it to save their lives Tai, you didn't have any choice." Leon said.

"He won't believe that."

"Sure he will give him _some_ credit, trust him Tai, and trust me." Leon put one gloved hand on Tai's chin and turned his face towards him. "He'll understand."

————————————————————————————

A:N Working on the third chapter I promise you, and I'm trying to read some fanfiction so I can get pointers and check out some new techniques on how to write my story. Please Read/Review people I need your input to know if I'm doing well.

Oh and if you wanna find out what Leon and Tai are talking about read the next chapter when they go to Disney kingdom. Check ya later

Kingdom Hearts Rules!


	3. Off To See King Mickey pt 1 Ghost Memory

Tai set the last of the controls and input their destination; while Leon sat in his seat buckling up. The Gummi ship sat on a platform inside the garage, the platform lifted the ship up high as the roof of the garage opened up to reveal the bright morning sun. The platform tilted as it came upward putting the ship in a slight diagonal angle.

Tai walked leisurely over to the pilot seat and sat down; he looked at Sora with an amused smile. The young brunette was staring at the bright sky in awe, not even bothering to take a hint and sit down like the other two had.

Tai heard the engine rev up to fire it's booster realizing he should probably say something, seeing as Sora obviously didn't know what would happen if he stood there a few moments longer.

"You should probably sit down Sora." He warned him, the boy turned to him a confused expression on his face.

"Why?" He asked innocently.

The young Keyblader soon got his answer when the booster fired launching the ship into the air at an incredible speed, the force of the launch knocked him off his feet and he was sent flying toward the rear of the ship.

Luckily Leon grabbed the boy in time before he hit the wall, he sat Sora down in his lap instructing him not to move till he said so.

Sora blushed red as a tomato at how silly he'd been and managed to mutter a 'yes sir' in response.

Once the ship left the atmosphere of the planet it slowed down somewhat, still going at a speed Sora wasn't too comfortable with; Something Tai took notice of.

"Sorry about that, my ship's not exactly as good as Donald's but it's pretty fast. It'll get us there before you know it, you just have to get used to it that's all." The blond reassured him.

Sora nodded and smiled.

"Up." Leon said sternly.

Sora complied and stood up, Leon walked over to the medical case to check on Riku Sora followed closely behind.

Riku lay still unconscious inside a medical containment cocoon, Leon had constructed it. It looked much like a metal coffin, attached to a large table.

"What's this thing he's in again?" Sora asked curiously.

"It's a medical cocoon. Supposed to keep him safe, it checks his breathing, body temperature, blood pressure, and heart every 3 minutes."

Leon pushed in a few buttons, and the metal coffin sprung to life; small robotic hands stuck pads the size of a walnut to Riku's left arm, and neck. Another robotic arm placed a breathing mask over his mouth, a hose was attached to the mask leading into one of the walls of the coffin and out down into the floor of the ship.

Small lights inside that were embedded on each side turned on illuminating each and every corner of the coffin.

Finally a glass shield came over the coffin sealing it shut with a hiss of air, what Sora thought to be water rushed into it from each side filling it quickly.

Sora panicked not understanding what the machine was doing.

"It's okay Sora, this is healing water it'll help Riku recover from his injuries." Leon explained.

"Oh, Hey Leon is Riku going to wake up soon?" Sora asked him.

Leon sighed heavily turning away from the coffin to look out one of the rear windows.

"I really don't know Sora."

Sora felt saddened by his answer, the thought of Riku not waking up again was terrifying.

It's not fair, I just got him back. He can't leave me again.

"Hey Sora." Sad blue eyes looked up at Leon. "Why don't you go sit in your chair and rest for a while, I'll watch over Riku, Okay?" Sora nodded.

He walked over to his chair and sat down, he'd just closed his eyes when he felt the seat start to lean back.

"Whoa!"

He jumped out of the seat and saw Leon standing beside the chair, his finger holding down a button on the armrest making the chair continue to recline till it was as far as it could go.

He released the button and folded his arms, chuckling softly at Sora's alarmed response.

"It's a recliner Sora, you should feel more comfortable sleeping in it this way." Leon said to him.

"Ohh, hey you should warn me next time I thought there was something wrong with it." He said pouting slightly.

He walked up to the seat examining the buttons on the side, which were only two, one with a down arrow and another with an up arrow shown in green.

"So these are the up and down buttons?" Leon nodded.

Sora laid down in the chair shifting a little to get comfortable, once he was in a position he liked he pushed the up button on the armrest making him go up an inch.

He pushed it again going up higher this time, a silly grin plastered on his face. He started to push the up and down buttons randomly, reclining to different positions and not really settling on just one. Finally Leon got tired of his silliness.

"Sora?" He said, the young boy paused for a second in his button pushing to look at him.

"Yes Leon?" He answered innocently.

"Stop it." He said firmly.

"Yes Leon." Sora replied.

He returned the chair to the position Leon had put it in and closed his eyes, he relaxed soon enough and fell into a light doze, Sora could remember feeling someone lay a cover over him before he fell asleep completely.

Leon walked over to the right side of the coffin, bending down he pushed a silver button that flipped out a monitor screen just below it. The screen showed that Riku's vitals were all normal, Leon let out a sigh of relief but deep in the pit of his stomach he felt worry.

Those injuries he'd found when he examined Riku's body the other night were puzzling, according to Tai, Riku had only been hit once by the heartless.

But when he looked at him he'd found various bruises on his body, including one injury that was the most disturbing. Riku had a black mark on his back where Tai had told Leon the attack hit him. The mark was a symbol of infinity with an 'M' over it, the reason he felt concern for this one in particular was because he'd seen it before.

He stood, reaching in his pocket he fished out a book, a journal, made by two scientists that had lived very long ago. The book looked old, very old; he opened it silver, writing shone from off the pages illuminating every word.

Flipping through it he found the page he was looking for, a drawing of the symbol he'd found on Riku's body was depicted written below it was a passage describing the mark.

"**The symbol of eternity, his mark. Those cursed with it are forever bound to the creature, and if they are not strong enough are susceptible to him. He is fear, hatred, anger, and death; the ever consuming darkness that rests within."**

He closed the book returning it to his pocket and turned to the young keyblader resting soundly in his chair.

Leon felt guilty for keeping something so important from him but it was probably best he not know the extent of the situation.

If he did, he wouldn't be able to continue with this. Leon said inwardly.

Something strange still bothered Leon, why had this mark appeared on Riku's body after he'd been attacked by a heartless. According to the book the only one who could give such a mark didn't even exist anymore.

Unless... Leon shuddered at the thought that such a creature might still be alive.

Such a thing was impossible, but still why? None of this made any sense.

'Maybe Mickey can make sense of it.'

Leon hoped he could, if they didn't figure out what was going on soon who knows what might happen?

Leon walked over to Tai's seat, the blond appeared to be dozing off which was why Leon was surprised to hear him speak.

"What is it?" He asked not opening his eyes, he already knew who it was.

"I wanted to ask you if anything weird happened last night, anything out of the ordinary that stuck in your head that you wanted to tell me?" Tai slowly opened his eyes and looked at the brunette.

"Seeing as how getting attacked by heartless isn't exactly what I would call ordinary not really." Leon sighed. "Save for one thing though but it's probably nothing." He said closing his eyes.

"Don't tease me Tai. What was it?" The blond smiled.

"After I knocked Sora out I used the spell to hide us under the bridge, you know the one the train station goes under. There was an instant where they almost caught me, but another one came along a woman. I didn't see her face she was wearing one of those cloaks, she told them that they didn't have time to search for me that someone named Tomoko was waiting for them. And then..." Leon furrowed his brows thoroughly intrigued by Tai's story.

"And then what?" He asked him.

"Then they walked away, but one guy stayed just for a second. He unsheathed his kitana and said 'Troublesome sword.' Then he threw it into the air, it went a long way I'm not sure where it landed." Leon nodded saying thanks to him before letting the blonde fall back to sleep.

He walked over to Riku, the young boy looked so serene as he lay asleep. His silver hair floating around him in the water and sometimes brushing against his face.

He mulled over what Tai had told him, he wasn't sure if he should be glad for the information since he was now more confused than before. If the heartless hadn't meant to attack Riku, then why did they?

And who was this strange person named Tomoko? Perhaps he was their leader?

None of it made seemed to make sense to him.

————————————————————————————

Sora opened his eyes to find himself on his back; arms at his side staring up at a multicolored stained glass ceiling.

His clothing had changed to silk white pajamas, a drastic contrast to the room around him.

The walls around him were painted a rich red color and the carpet the same hue but lighter. A large staircase winded down from the ceiling to the bottom, white silk sheets hanging from the banister.

A grand chandelier hovered high above him, casting a dim light around the room.

He stood up and looked around to take in his surroundings. There were no doorways or windows just a long dark hallway, one that didn't look too inviting.

He turned around again to the back of the room and there stood four paintings resting each on an individual easel, each covered by a thin veil of red silk.

"Strange, I could've sworn that wasn't there before." He walked up to the paintings.

After examining each one he decided to uncover the one second to the left, he tugged on the veil and it came loose easily revealing the portrait behind.

There stood a painting of Riku standing with one leg behind the other, his head cocked slightly to the side with his eyes down in a submissive gesture.

His silver hair pulled into a ponytail, small tendrils hung in front of his face. His normal jeans and sleeveless shirt were replaced by a dark gray V necked shirt with a long black jacket, black pants and laced up dark blue boots that went up to his knees covering the bottom portion of his pants, each bore a small buckle at the top of them.

Riku face bore such a great expression of pain and sorrow, he'd never seen those jade eyes filled with such sadness.

What Sora noticed most different about Riku was the small jade pendant hanging around his neck.

Sora traced a finger over the pendant, it looked so beautiful but he'd never seen Riku wear it and he was certain he would've.

He withdrew his hand, turning to look at the other paintings. His hand grasped the silk sheet of the painting next to Riku's but paused when he heard the sound of a piano playing.

He let go of the veil, whirling around towards the hallway but there was nothing behind him. There was nothing in the hallway but darkness. The soft playing of the instrument called him, yet he was afraid to go into the hallway knowing the consequences of satisfying his curiosity would most likely lead to trouble.

But despite his fear he crossed the marble floor to the threshold that kept the room and the hallway separate.

'One last chance to turn back.'

Sora took a deep breath, burying his fear and kept walking, the alluring sound of the piano drawing him closer.

He walked down the hallway for what felt like hours following the music aimlessly down the path till finally he came to a balcony.

The entrance was covered with sheer red drapes, which went up and down like a wave of water every time the wind blew. A grand piano sat near the window of the balcony, a young boy sat at the piano his back facing Sora, strumming the piano softly.

His hands moved over the piano gracefully playing every keystroke in tune.

Long blonde hair fell behind him draping down his back like a waterfall, he wore a red and black silk kimono that went down to his knees and black boots with red silk trimming.

Sora stood behind him listening to the young boy play entranced by the beautiful music.

All too soon the song ended with one final key stroke.

"Beethoven's moonlight sonata, do you like it?" Sora opened his mouth to speak but shut it now knowing exactly what to say. "It used to be a favorite of all the people of Symphony."

"It sounds nice." Sora replied shyly. "I really don't listen to that kind of music so I wouldn't know."

The boy closed the piano, stood and turned around to face Sora. When he looked at his face Sora realized he recognized this boy, that blonde hair, that pale face; those red eyes. He found himself staring into those crimson depths, unable to look away.

The memories of his last dream came rushing back with force, making him feel dizzy.

He vaguely noticed the boy coming closer to him, till he was not a scarce few inches away from him.

He felt a stab of fear come into his heart, but pushed it away.

"Why do you come here if you fear me?" He asked him.

"I'm not scared of you." He tried to say firmly, but with little conviction.

The boy laughed at him. "And I don't come here by choice."

"Well you followed the music didn't you?" Sora opened his mouth to retort but closed it when he realized the boy was right. "Ah, so you see. You wish to know more about me, but fear what you will find."

Sora looked down to the marble floor, and the young boy smirked.

He put a hand on Sora's chin pushing it up slightly to look at him.

"I would like to show you something."

————————————————————————————

"Don't leave me Seiya!"

Random images flashed before Riku's eyes, voices he'd never heard before sounded all around him making it difficult to think.

Then suddenly all he could feel was pain, an unbearable sting all over his body; he tried to scream in pain but no sound came out. The pain intensified drowning out the voices, he writhed in agony as the pain attacked his body in waves every one stronger than the other. He thought he might go insane.

"Seiya." A gentle voice called out.

He looked and above him was a young boy, one that looked no older than him, clad in white floating in the darkness, his entire body was bathed in an ethereal glow illuminating the darkness around them. Raven hair framed his lightly tanned skin, blue eyes shone with such concern and caring it made Riku forget the immense pain that racked his body.

The boy descended upon Riku like an angel from heaven, he was only inches from him when he placed a warm hand on his cheek; the soothing caress dulling the pain that filled him.

He bent his head down to Riku's ear.

"Seiya don't leave me, Come back to me Seiya." He whispered softly.

Riku felt the pain slowly melt away till nothing but a feeling of warmth resided within him.

He turned his head to the boy, the boy lifted his head to look Riku in the eye.

"Why--- why do you-- " He tried to ask, the boy put a finger over his lips to silence him.

"You needn't understand that right away. But you must remember if you are to stop him, if you are to keep history from repeating itself but this time with much worser consequences. Remember your promise to him." His hand trailed down Riku's mouth to his neck where the jade pendant lay.

"But why me?" Riku asked.

"Because long ago mankind tried to do something they were not meant to do and failed. Now we must correct that mistake before it's too late." The boy began to ascend the same way he'd come, Riku grabbed his hand in an effort to stop him but the hand slipped from his grip.

"Wait! Don't leave." He cried.

The boy smiled down at him. "I won't leave you, I never could."

"But what if I don't find out what I'm supposed to do in time!?" The boy was slowly starting to fade away but Riku could still see some remnant of him still hovering above.

"You will don't worry, trust in yourself and you can do it." He said before he was finally gone.

Riku closed his eyes for a second and opened them again, he was now staring up at a ceiling fan that was slowly whirling round and round. He sat up looking around to find himself in a room sitting on a bed, realizing that it had just been a dream.

Or had it? He reached up his hand to fiddle with the pendant on his neck as he pondered what the boy had said to him.

'Seiya don't leave me, Come back to me Seiya.'

The other boy had not given him a direct answer as to why he called him by that name. It was strange how it felt normal to hear that name come from the raven-haired boy's lips almost as if it really were his own name.

But he knew that wasn't true, his name was Riku not Seiya.

He pulled the orange sheets that covered his lower body away getting out of the bed. He grabbed the jacket he'd taken off before he went to sleep and slipped it back on, after straightened it a little he walked out the door of the room. Once he entered the hallway he realized that he had no idea where he should go so he decided finding Dr. Virgil was probably the best idea.

As he walked his thoughts drifted back to the dream. Just who was that boy?

He'd just rounded a corner when he looked up and saw Dr. Virgil flying straight towards him! Riku ducked and thankfully managed to avoid a collision with the doctor; he stood up and turned around. And there was the doctor hanging from the ceiling on a thin wire harness that was tied around his waist, he wore regular orange pj's and matching slippers.

"Oh dear me where did the silver boy go?" Riku stifled his laughter at the young doctor's bewilderment.

"Over here Doctor." The Dr. looked around but didn't see where he was.

"Where? I can't seem to find you." He said.

Riku grabbed the doctor by the waist, much to his surprise, and turned him around to face him.

"Oh! There you are so sorry I didn't see you there. I was just testing out my newest invention; it allows me to roam around the entire house without having to walk and it's attached to the ceiling as you can see," He pointed upward and Riku's eyes followed.

"The house is made of a special kind of mixture of metal and wood. The metal melds the wood to any shape I wish by fusing with it and then changing it to a different mold before returning to its original state. So the rope is able to make new pathways whenever I want it to. Impressive yes?"

"Oh yes very impressive. It must've taken you a long time to make this place." Riku said.

"A very long time in fact." Riku almost jumped when he realized that Dr. Velshdein had been behind him. "But time is no longer of any importance to us."

The elder doctor looked even more fatigued than before, black circles adorned his eyes, his skin looking even more pale than before.

"Doctor I do believe you left something unattended in your room." The younger one furrowed his eyebrows together in thought.

His eyes widening when he realized that his colleague was right. "Oh No!! I'm very sorry Riku but if you'll excuse me."

The young doctor tugged on the string that his harness was attached to, the string automatically went forward down the same way the doctor had come, pulling the doctor along with it.

Once the doctor was out of sight it was only him and Dr. Velshdein.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked him.

That dream. "Yes."

"Hmm, Come with me." The doctor walked down the hallway, the same one the other had.

Riku, not wanting to be left alone in the house, followed.

The doctor led him to a large dining room full with small round tables and chairs. Every table was set for three, the doctor walked to the one centered in the middle of the room and sat down. Riku sat down as well, the table had three mugs tea, from the smell Riku could tell it was green tea.

A small sugar dish filled with sugar cubes, next to it was a teapot, and to the right of that was a milk pitcher.

And three small platters with slices of chocolate iced red velvet cake on it, with slices of strawberries for garnish.

They both sat in silence not looking at each other nor saying a word to each other. However the silence was broken by a loud, but distant, boom one that sent a slight tremor through the entire house.

A few minutes later a small white and silver robot came totting out of the entrance to the dining room, it looked like a robot toddler from the way it walked moving side to side with each step. His head was bigger than his body, and his small arms could barely reach the table as he slid a half burnt letter onto it.

"Doctor Muchnut will not be joining you today for lunch, and he sends this letter as an apology." The robot's voice was a deep baritone that didn't sound like it fit his small body.

The doctor gave the robot a wry smile. "Thank you Gear, you may leave now."

The robot walked away going back the same way he came.

"Is there another doctor in this house?" Riku asked him confused. He thought the other doctor's name was Virgil.

"Oh no, Virgil's full name is Dr. Virgil Love Muchnut."

Riku's eyes widened in surprise at this sudden realization trying his best not to laugh, he covered his mouth with his hand to disguise his grin.

"Is it? Well that's a very interesting name." He said nearly losing his composure.

"No it's not, it's utterly ridiculous." the doctor said scornfully.

"So um, is that his birth name?"

"No he changed it."

"He changed it _to_ Dr. Virgil Love Muchnut, wow that's umm-- I'm sorry but what was it before he changed?" Riku asked him.

"You don't want to know. It was so unpronounceable it should've been illegal." He said taking a sip of his tea.

Riku shakily lifted his mug taking a sip of his tea as well, trying hard not to laugh but the thought of the younger doctor's name kept taunting him.

**Keep it together Riku you don't wanna be rude.** Riku told himself, the doctor however saw his predicament.

"It's okay you know, you can laugh. When I first heard it I spent five whole minutes laughing about it and in his face too." The doctor told him.

Riku had first begun snickering, but that then escalated to full out laughing. Riku had to put his mug down, as it was shaking from the vibrations of laughter.

"Wasn't he offended?" Riku asked through bouts of laughter.

A small smile came across the doctor's face. "No he actually had no idea what I thought was so funny. And to this very day I never told why I was laughing so much when we first met, he hasn't figured out either."

Riku laughed harder, after a few minutes he managed to calm down panting from laughing so much.

"I'm glad I found something to amuse you, its very depressing when you don't smile." the doctor said sincerely.

Riku found it odd he said such a thing, and after all, the doctor had never before seen him smile or heard him laugh. Had he?

"Thank you." He said with a small smile, starting to eat his cake.

The doctor took on a more serious tone. "So tell me something how exactly did you come to be here?"

Riku took a small bite of his cake before answering.

"Well, the last thing I remember is running away from heartless." That night played so clearly in his head. "And when I stopped to rest for a second something hit me from behind."

He remembered very well that terrible pain, that eerie voice and awful laugh. "And then I passed out, and woke up here."

"Hmm." He ran his finger over the rim of his mug, thinking.

"What is this place exactly?" The doctor looked at Riku, his eyes shone with an emotion that could only be described as sadness.

"A place for sinners to atone. Which is why I find it strange that you came here."

"And just what great sin have you committed doctor?" He asked not expecting an answer.

The doctor stared at the liquid in his cup, not being able to look the boy in the eyes.

"I once condemned two innocent souls to death, and another soul I sentenced to an eternity in hell. I fear that because you are here that maybe I haven't as of yet atoned for my sins."

"What do you mean by--" Riku gasped as a familiar feeling of dread filled him, he unconsciously grasped the jade pendant wrapped around his neck.

The sky darkened frighteningly fast, Riku stood, the doctor as well looking out the window at the night.

"What's going on? There are no stars; no moon there's nothing out there." He said bewildered.

"Oh there's something out there alright." the doctor said gravely.

The younger doctor yet again came through the entrance, literally, nearly hitting Riku yet again. He swung to his side in the air, his feet hitting the wall pressing a hidden button within it.

"It's _Him!_" He bellowed.

Riku turned to Velshdein. "Who?" He asked.

"Maldeo." He spat, his blue eyes blazed with anger.

————————————————————————————

Sora looked out from a balcony, toward the sky. Sora, like Riku, was shocked to see that there was not a star to be seen, or a moon to shine on the ground.

Sora looked at Maldeo, the boy pointed toward the ground. He looked, there on the ground lay many lights shining in the darkness, it was if the very sky had fallen. The light was not great enough to reach but a few feet from the ground, the dim light only illuminating the small area around them.

"Oh dear." Sora looked to the boy.

"What is it?" Sora asked him.

"I'm afraid I'll have to cut our time short Sora, I have some _very _unwelcome guests to take care of." Maldeo grabbed the blue-eyed boy by his shoulders. "But don't worry I'll see you very soon."

He pushed Sora back with an inhuman force that made the brunette lose his balance, Sora fell. But instead of hitting the hard marble floor, he fell deeper into a large hole; the hole engulfed him sucking him downward into nothingness.

Sora saw the boy smile down at him before the hole closed.

The blonde turned his gaze toward the balcony, he looked out seeing the mansion coming from the outer-edge of the darkness into the light.

"Well it looks like I'm going to get to see you after all these years."

————————————————————————————

A:N (1) Understand that Riku was trying to ask why the boy kept calling him Seiya. I know this was probably longer than my other chapters, it'll probably take a while before the next one is out so I can't make any promises as to when. By the way the cake was the only thing I could think of at the moment I know very well that velvet chocolate cake with strawberries is an aphrodisiac, so don't think it means anything cause it doesn't I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to put shonenai in this story, but if you guys really want me to you got to review so don't be shy push that little blue button!

Check ya later!

Kingdom Hearts Rules!


	4. Off To See King Mickey pt 2 FOS

Off To See King Mickey part 2

Field of Stars

"Who's Maldeo?" Virgil made to answer Riku but Dimitri silenced him.

"Nothing you need to worry about."

He walked over to the table next to the one they had been sitting on and threw the table to the side, it fell with a loud crash, and the sounds of the tea set could be heard as the glass broke into hundreds of pieces.

The doctor bent down and pressed a button that had been hidden by the table, gears could be heard all around the house being set into place. The house was changing again, just like it had before when Riku had seen it hovering.

"But I don't understand, what's going on?" Riku asked pressing upon the doctor for an answer,

"I told you Riku it's nothing for to concern yourself with, and I'm afraid we're going to have to confine you to your room."

"What?!" He exclaimed.

"Virgil." Said Velshdein.

Riku glanced at the hovering young doctor, who was now grinning maniacally at him.

The doctor lunged forward at Riku, using the wall as a connective to gain momentum, he swung down, swiftly grabbing Riku by the waist and lifting the two of them off the ground. The harness pulled them toward the entrance and into the hallway; he struggled to get out of the doctors iron-grip, but unfortunately for someone who appeared to be so young he was incredibly strong.

They went through various hallways, all the time Riku kept thinking the way to his room had been a lot shorter. Finally they came to his doorway, normally the doorway hadn't been built for a person to go flying straight through it but because the two doctor's had activated the defense mechanism, not known to Riku, the wall was able to change its form.

A thin sheet of liquid metal coiled over the wooden surface, the metal fused with the wall molding it to open wider to fit them inside. They flew through, Virgil dropping Riku roughly onto the bed, muttering a quick apology when he fell off of the bed and onto the floor. He twisted in the air turning himself around, back facing Riku, gracefully flying back out of the room.

The wall morphed back into its original state, the door slamming behind Virgil as he left locking in place with a sound click. "Wait!" Riku shouted.

He ran to the door banging on it. "Let me out of here this is ridiculous, I'm not a child I can take care of myself!"

"This isn't something someone like you can fight Riku, I don't want to do this but its for your own good. Please, be a good boy and stay in that room." Riku growled and slammed his fist against the door before settling himself on the bed, squatting one leg resting over the other in a criss-cross position.

"Damn those two! Dragging me here to this room like some spoiled child and then locking me in it!" He grumbled softly.

He finally gave up squatting after several minutes, as it was quite painful.

Heaving a sigh he let himself fall backward and collapse onto the soft satin covered pillows, he rolled over to his side, jade eyes now staring at the window.

An idea sprang into his head, one that spread a grin so big on his face it would put the Cheshire cat to shame.

There was just no way he was going to sit in this room and be completely useless, with this strong determination he jumped off his bed, sauntered over to the window and pushed it open poking his head out to see if he could get a view of what was going on. T

his unfortunately came to no avail, the sides of the mansion were so big he could hardly see anything much less something that would tell him what was happening.

He had to get higher, that was when he caught sight of a ladder not 3 ft. away from him mired to a hook on the rooftop. If he could just get something to grab it he could bring it to him and climb to the top. But what?

He scanned the room for something useful, there was a king-sized canopy bed, a nightstand with three drawers, and a wardrobe. He checked the drawers of the nightstand and found a bunch of clothes, a lot of them were shorts and long sleeved shirt consisting of colors which were orange, red, and yellow. He checked the wardrobe, nothing there but coats hardly useful.

Riku put his back to the wardrobe and sighed in defeat, his head hung in disappointment. He stared hopelessly at the floorboards for a while, then something white under the bed caught his eye.

He bent down and reached under the bed for it grasping the end of it, he pulled it out to see that it was a simple white box.

Setting it down on the bed Riku pulled off the top to reveal a long strand of thin white rope, the rope was considerably thick and at least five or six feet long, a strange aura surrounded the object making it glow brightly.

Riku was immediately entranced by it, he was convinced this was the one thing that would help him; he unfortunately missed the warning in bold letters on the back of the box top that said 'DO NOT USE, ONLY IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES'.

He walked again over to the window, threading the rope through the hole at the end of the hook and tying it securely. "Now all I have to do is get this onto that, easier said than done."

The rope emitted a bright flash of light, he cried out in surprise covering his eyes to guard them from the light, the flash of light temporarily blinding him.

The rope jumped from his hand wriggling on the floor before it started to form the shape of a smiley face with arms and legs.

Riku opened his eyes to see the creature staring at him with its makeshift eyes, he gaped at the strange thing with astonishment as it waved at him making a strange sound that sounded oddly like 'hello'.

He awkwardly waved back still stunned by the thought that a smiley face made of rope was actually saying hello to him, the creature stopped waving to look down at it's feet the smile instantly turned to a frown and Riku found himself inwardly asking why.

The creature pointed a small rope-like finger in the air announcing it suddenly had an idea. It clicked it's small feet together and a white silk appeared on the bottom of the floor beneath it. The white fabric wrapped around the little creature's feet much like booties, more white silk traveled up the creature's body wrapping tightly around it making a small cloak that covered it's body and mouth. The rest of it twirled around it's hands making matching white gloves.

"Yay!" It cried joyously.

Riku smiled nervously, this place was weird.

"So what are you?" he asked, not sure if it would answer.

It stared at him for a minute as if it was contemplating his question. "Do you know what you are?" he said sarcastically.

A look of realization appeared on the creature's face and he shook his head to say yes.

"Uh huh, uh huh," It then made a noise that sounded like it was clearing it's throat, strange seeing as it didn't look like it had one.

"Mahou Saku." it replied pointing to itself.

"Magic rope?" It nodded yes. "Of course... hey you wouldn't be able to help me get to the roof would you?"

The creature walked over to the window and and extended it's head to look outside, upward toward the top of the house.

It turned back to him and nodded yes.

"Great! So how exactly do you work?" It extended a gloved hand to Riku wrapping it's rope like arms around his shoulders, chest, and waist securing him by tying it's hand around one wiry strip of rope that was around his waist.

It jumped onto the window, extending it's other hand towards the hook that held the ladder, unfortunately since the rope was not that long the rest of it's body had to now take the shape of one line of rope . It was difficult but it managed to get to the hook.

'If you're ready, I'll hoist you up now.' Said Mahou.

"Oh no I don't think that's a good... Ahhh!" The rope yanked him forward and pulled him forceably out the window. Riku looked down gasping in fear as he realized he was so high off the ground.

'Sorry, takes a while for me to get used to moving around.' Said Mahou.

"Ha, no problem." He replied, chuckling nervously.

The creature dragged him up the side of the house and onto the roof. Riku surveyed the rooftop, much like the bottom it's integral structure was made of wood as well as a mixture of metal. The rooftop was flat save for a blunt spoke that poked out in the center, unlike the inside where the ceiling appeared to be round sometimes and then flat. The entire house was an oddity in itself, always changing.

But Riku put aside his thoughts about the strange house and turned to look in front of him, up so high he could now see clearly what was going on, and found out just what had scared the doctors so much they'd resort to locking him in a room.

This unfortunately for Riku wasn't good.

Past the house he could see a large white castle in the distance surrounded by a field of grass; for a moment this was all he could see, until a large shadow crept up from behind falling upon the castle like a wave of tumultuous water and consuming the structure within seconds before moving on to the rest of the valley.

At the forefront of the darkness he could make out a person but couldn't recognize them. The shadow grew closer, and closer to the house, as the shadow drew near he started to think it might've been a better idea to stay inside.

————————————————————————————

"We're here." Tai announced.

"Yay! Finally!" Sora yelled with glee.

"Calm down Sora. Tai I'm guessing you'll be taking Riku into the castle?" Leon asked innocently, but inwardly laid a taunt that only Tai recognized. "Seeing as it will take a_ long_ time to unhook the machine and take it out of the ship and into the castle."

Tai narrowed his eyes, giving Leon an icy glare. "Yes I will."

Leon smirked at the blonde's expression. "Okay then, Sora let's go."

The two exited the rear and headed towards the castle, Leon looked up at the large white castle with a heavy heart. The news that he had for Mickey certainly wasn't good, and with their recent victory over the heartless he despised being the bearer of bad news.

Tai sighed as he watched them walk away, he looked at the medical coffin that Leon had placed the other in. 'I knew I'd have to face him sooner or later.' He thought as he walked towards it, he'd wished to avoid having any contact at all with the other Keyblade master but the prospect of meeting Donald again was worse.

He seemed eerily peaceful lying asleep in the machine, his pale skin gave the appearance that he was dead rather than sleep. His vitals signs were as usual normal, but even though there was nothing wrong with him he still didn't wake up.

Tai surveyed the boy's face, he looked so much like him, so much like his brother.

Tai shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts, he pushed a button on the side of the machine which drained the healing potion out of the coffin, the remaining potion soaked into his skin leaving his clothes dry despite being submerged in the solution for so long.

He bent down and pulled a latch that resided at the bottom of the machine releasing it from the floor, it rose slightly revealing wheels so that transporting it into the castle would be easier. Finally he grasped the latch at the top in front of it and pulled it out of its position in the floor and off the ship, he guided the machine off the ramp and started towards the castle.

He walked slowly so as to delay the reunion he'd soon be having with his teacher, Donald would not be happy with him once he found out what Tai had done.

This thought filled the young boy with even more fear as he passed the threshold of the castle door.

————————————————————————————

"He's getting closer." Dimitri said warily.

"What are we going to do? We don't have a plan." Virgil said.

"I do." He replied heading for the door. "I need you to keep an eye on him while I get my machine ready."

"But you don't even know if that thing is gonna work, what're you going to do if something goes wrong?" The elder scientist paused, Virgil was right things were much too dangerous not to have a backup plan.

"We'll use replica, if it doesn't work I'll put in the last code and then you know what to do after that." Virgil nodded in agreement.

"Yes but Dimitri, are you sure?" He asked him once more, Dimitri shrugged his shoulders.

"As sure as I can be at this point."

He watched his elder colleague walk out of the dining room, his heart heavy with fear. "I hope this works."

Virgil walked over to the far corner of the room and pulled a lever on the wall, a circle of light formed in the center of the dining room. The floorboards that had been separated from the rest by the circle began to rise revealing a large super computer, with three monitor screens on the bottom, one in the middle, and two on each side. The first two flickered to life showing a full view of the bottom and top of the mansion, the third screen lit up as well showing the body of an android floating in a green solution. It's body constricted by chains making it immobile. The mechanical creature was made of a flesh-looking metal not know to man, the glow of the green water illuminated its metallic skin and long silver hair giving it the look of an unearthly creature, as if it were an angel.

The android's body was shaped in the form of a boy that looked no younger that 12.

Aqua eyes opened slowly, the blue orbs wore a soft expression that made the creature appear more innocent that it actually was.

"What can I do for you doctor?" The android's light monotone voice only added more to it's mechanical features.

"Nothing as of yet Replica, but I need you to be ready just in case." The android nodded, closing its eyes but not going back to sleep. Virgil ran a shaky hand though his fiery red hair and turned his back to the monitors, to look out the window, unable to see the end of rope that wrapped itself about the rooftop.

————————————————————————————

Riku stepped back slowly as he saw the shadow coming near, he clutched a hand over his heart as a familiar wave of fear washed over him.

The shadow was now within 5 ft. of the mansion, but instead of consuming it, much like it had done to the rest of the valley it surrounded the large house forming a black dome that sprang up so tall it almost touched the darkened sky before closing in around the top sealing them in.

Riku looked all around him the darkness covered every inch about the house, there was no way out, the feeling of fear that had been present in his heart before now swelled into a deep dread.

He knew something was coming, but the question was what?

He soon got his answer when a large hand sprang out from the wall of darkness in front of him, it was transparent unlike the darkness which it came from.

The hand itself was scaly, and thin so much that it looked like bones rather than an actual hand.

It reached till it was at least 1 ft. in front of him and dug it's black talons into the wood of the roof. The hand then did something unexpected; it started to flatten against the wooden rooftop. The bony structure of the hand melted against the wooden surface, stretching out to form an odd sort of pathway.

"What in..." A figure began to rise out of the dark pathway, the figure rose out of the darkness till before him stood a young boy no older than 14. He was beautiful in an ethereal and inhuman way.

Red eyes with a black oval shaped iris in the middle much like that of a cat; deathly pale skin and blonde hair that fell behind his back stopping at his waist.

He wore a red and black silk kimono that went down to his knees and black boots with red silk trimming.

He looked somewhat like the other person he'd seen in Twilight Town, but this one was oddly familiar.

"Hello Seiya." The young boy said, a malevolent growl present beneath his voice.

"Who are you?" Riku asked the boy.

"Ohh, now that hurts. You mean you don't even recognize me Seiya? After all..." The demonic tone deepened till it seemed to resonate all around him as he spoke. "It was you that locked me here in this prison."

Riku began to back away from the boy cautiously, keeping himself aware of any move made around him.

"What are you talking about?"

The boy let out a malicious laugh that echoed throughout the entire black dome, the singular action caused a ripple to go out through the walls starting from the very bottom and ending at the top.

Large red eyes formed at the top of the dome looking down at Riku. He regarded the new appearance with a mixture of shock and fear.

His attention being solely focused on the large red eyes, he almost didn't notice the transparent hand, much like the first, reach out of one of the walls of the dome coming straight towards him.

He shifted his gaze in time to summon his oblivion and slice at the devilish hand, it disappeared quickly but another soon came in it's place this time from his left.

He brought his keyblade down on this one as well cleaving it in two, but one after another came at him trying desperately to grab him. Some managed to avoid his attack but soon were caught up in the onslaught of Riku's attacks.

After failing to capture him several more times, the hands paused coming after him. And for a moment Riku thought they had stopped altogether, but then hundreds of hands, coming from all directions, simultaneously reached for him. And before he could raise his keyblade to stop them, they'd already pinned him to the wooden rooftop.

He struggled to get free but the demonic hands wouldn't budge, three hands covered his left arm and three on the other, two keeping his legs in place. Each one had it's black talons embedded into the wood of the house, making sure Riku was completely immobile.

A white aura began to surround him causing his skin to shine with a pale luminescent glow. His body started to heat up, searing warmth that consumed him from the inside out; it felt familiar.

"Know this," Riku turned his head, the only part of his body that could move at all, to the young boy who was now standing very close to him.

"I will enjoy seeing the pain and horror in your eyes when I use your power to destroy this place." The young boy emphasized every word with cruel malice, a sadistic smile spread across his face that caused a chill to run down Riku's spine.

"But don't worry Seiya, I won't kill you." He bent down to whisper into Riku's ear.

"Only when you have watched me destroy every living thing in existence, only when you have given up all hope and are utterly helpless and alone will I allow you to _die_."

The boy raised his hand toward the ceiling of the black dome; a dark mist began to spill out of the eyes that resided at the very top. The mist began to take the shape of a large spike sticking out in-between the large red eyes, the edges of the spike were hideously twisted into a sharp tip pointed straight at his chest.

"Now mind you this will hurt, but please don't hold back your screams." said the boy.

The giant spike extended from the ceiling of the dome down to the roof, embedding itself squarely in his chest. It pushed through, digging down into the house itself. Riku released a grisly scream as it went through, only stopping when the spike was no longer burrowing it's way into his body. He was surprised to see that no blood had come from his wound, though he could feel the immense pain from it being there.

"I had hoped you would scream longer, but then again perhaps you will. It's not over yet." Riku furrowed his brows in confusion at the boy's words. He looked up at the red eyes that were still present at the top of the dome, they began to glow turning from red to a dark crimson. Two spears of red lightning came from each one, twisting around the huge spike heading toward him.

————————————————————————————

The younger scientist watched as the black dome covered every inch around the house sealing them up.

"Please hurry Dimitri." He said softly, praying his colleague would have the machine ready in time.

Then a strange sound caught his attention, a sound like something groaning, he listened for a moment before he realized it was the house making the sound.

Virgil looked cautiously at the ceiling of the dining room, it seemed that the sound was coming from there. Suddenly a spear crashed through the ceiling, splitting it in two from the entry even to threshold of the dining room. Virgil shouted in shock and stepped back as it went down to the floor, then the spike stopped moving short of going straight through it.

"What in hellfire?" He said marveling at the strange thing in confusion.

He looked up at the ceiling; there was no other room above the dining room so obviously it had come from the roof.

'Maldeo!' He thought, terror now shown clearly on his face.

He turned to the monitor screens, looking for the one that showed the roof. His eyes widened, and he gasped in terror as he saw that not only was Maldeo on the roof, but Riku was with him, with a spike planted in his chest. Lightning was shooting from the top of the dome to the end of the spear, electrocuting Riku.

Virgil slammed a hand on a green button, sending a connection through the P.A. System in the house directly to Dimitri's room.

"DIMITRI!!!"

————————————————————————————

"Hey you guys, wait up!" Tai shouted to the two brunette's running towards them, dragging the medic-machine behind him.

"How's Riku?" Leon asked the blond.

"He's fine, you really think I can't take care of one little kid?" Tai said in exasperation, Leon smiled in return.

"Uh, Leon?" Sora was looking at Riku in confusion. "What's that?" He asked the man.

Leon and Tai looked at Riku as well, odd red sparks were bouncing off the glass, and metal wall of the machine.  
Leon walked over to the side of the machine, he pushed a button that pulled up a screen with a readout of Riku's vital signs. His heart-rate and blood-pressure were rising!

"Oh no! We gotta get him out of the machine!" He said frantically.

He tried pushing the release button but the machine wouldn't open.

"Damn it! It's not working." He said in frustration.

"Is there an emergency lever?" Tai asked him.

"On your side, at the bottom." He replied.

Tai bent down, he quickly found the lever and tugged at it trying to get the machine open but again it wouldn't move.

"It won't budge!" said Tai.

Leon went over to the other side to help Tai, he grabbed the lever with both hands and pulled hard, but even with his strength and Tai's combined the lever still wouldn't move.

Sora glanced at Riku again gasping in alarm when Riku's body started to jerk violently.

"Leon! Riku's shaking!" shouted Sora.

'Damn it! What the hell is going on?!' Thought Leon, praying they could get him out before...

"Come on Tai pull harder!" Leon told him.  
"I'm trying!" Tai replied.

'Please hold on Seiya.' Tai said inwardly.

————————————————————————————

"STOP IT!! PLEASE!!!" Riku begged him.

"Oh but I can't, not till I have taken every last bit of your energy." He replied cruelly.

Riku writhed in pain, he felt like his very soul was being ripped apart. This same feeling he'd felt in his dream, but ten times worse. The glow that surrounded his body started to shine brighter, lighting up the entire dome.

"That's it Seiya, just try and fight it. You're only making it worse for yourself."

The young boy was right, the pain began to intensify, but the more he felt the more his light shone brighter.

————————————————————————————

Dimitri was putting the final touches to his machine when he heard Virgil scream his name over the intercom.

He walked over to the monitor and pushed the intercom.

"What is it Virgil?" He asked the frantic man.

"It's Maldeo! He's got Riku!" Dimitri dropped the screwdriver he'd been holding in shock.

"No." He said softly.

"Dimitri you have to hurry, you have to save him! Is the machine ready?" Virgil asked him.

"No, but we have no choice but to use it." Dimitri climbed into the cockpit of the large machine.

The machine was comprised of a seat surrounded by three round metal mirrors, strange by far but these mirrors served a very important purpose. It transformed the energy of its occupant into a ray of light that bounced off each mirror, each mirror changed angles in the process making it easier to direct the light to the top of the machine where a ball made of crystal would then change it into a powerful laser.

A large steam generator lay at the bottom to power all the main functions.

The drawback of the genius invention was that most of it's firepower depended solely on the pilot, and in order to successfully wound Maldeo, the machine required a massive amount of energy.

"Where are they?" He asked Virgil.

"On the rooftop." Virgil replied.

Dimitri put in the command for the top of the sky-roof he'd built into his room to open, he was about to rise the machine to the top, when Virgil spoke to him.

"Dimitri wait!" He turned his attention again to the monitor. "Please say you'll be careful." Dimitri could see Virgil was telling him, not asking.

"You know as well as I do that's next to impossible in a situation like this." He sighed, seeing the look of sadness and disappointment come across the younger man's face made him wish he could tell him what he wanted to hear. "Goodbye Virgil." He said, turning his gaze up to the roof.

"I won't say goodbye Dimitri!." Dimitri looked back at him with surprise. "You come back or else!"

Dimitri smiled, and gave a small chuckle, despite the severity of the situation.

He picked up a pair of gloves that lay just beside the armrest of the seat, wires extended out of the bottom of the gloves hooking directly into the computer board of the machine allowing the user better control of it.

"I'll do my best." Dimitri reassured him.

He slipped the gloves on, and input a command making the machine rise out of the opening of the sky-roof.

————————————————————————————

Riku screamed so loud he thought he might go hoarse, the spike was continuously shooting massive amounts of lightning through his body.

"Almost there." The boy said in playful tone. "Soon you won't feel any pain at all."

"Maldeo!!" A voice shouted.

The boy turned around to face the source of the voice. He saw Dimitri sitting in a large machine, three mirrors constantly spinning around him, a silver ball lay right above the doctor's head shining brightly.

The young boy gasped in fear. Instantly recognizing the machine!

"Go to hell!"

The doctor released the ball of energy and sent it hurtling towards him. Several hands stretched out from the dome to protect their master but the energy went through and hit the boy in his chest.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Maldeo fell to his knees in pain, his screams echoed throughout the entire dome, sending a shiver across the walls of darkness surrounding the house. The arms that held Riku prisoner retracted, the spike that had previously been torturing him shattered and the eyes that spawned it disappeared into the nothingness of the dome.

Free from Maldeo's hold Riku stood up shakily watching with a mixture of awe and horror as the spear of light that had hit Maldeo went through him and struck the wall of the dome behind him. A crack formed where it landed, spreading wider till it split the dome in two.

But Dimitri's strength was waning and the machine, sensing his predicament, automatically began to shutdown. A fail-safe that had been installed by Virgil.

Dimitri reached for the computer controls and input the final code to release replica.

"Virgil..Please hurry." He said weakly.

The light that had been shooting out of the ball of metal dimmed to a small flicker and then disappeared.

Maldeo stood up wavering slightly, a look that could only be described as pure hatred focused solely on the doctor.

"You! You'll pay for this!" He snarled.

He raised his hand toward the doctor, red and black energy began to swirl in his palm strengthening till it formed into a sphere. "DIE!"

He threw it towards the doctor, one touch from the sphere would kill Dimitri in an instant.

Riku turned his attention towards the doctor the man was now in danger from the boy.

"Dimitri!" He ran, heading for the large machine where the man sat, not knowing how to stop the monster's attack. And he didn't care, all he could think about was trying to protect the doctor.

Maldeo released the blast, sending it hurtling fast toward Dimitri, but now Riku was in the way.

'No! He mustn't die, not yet!' He panicked. But it was already too late, he couldn't stop the attack now.

————————————————————————————

Suddenly Riku's hand rose, against his will, pointing at the oncoming attack. His body started to glow again the light focused in the palm of his hand shooting out into forming of a Keyblade.

A light speared out from the tip hitting the blond the ball of energy and throwing it back at Maldeo, the blast hit him along with the beam of light pushing him back and off the roof.

"Impossible." He said to himself as he fell. "How could he have defeated me?"

The dome began to crack even more, the pieces from it falling to the roof disappearing before they impacted on it.

Riku turned towards Dimitri to see if the man was alright, surprised to see him staring at him with something akin to confusion.

He started to walk toward him when a feeling of fatigue washed over him, his body felt incredibly weak and he found it hard to keep himself standing. He dropped to his knees and dropped onto the wooden surface, passing out.

"Riku..." Dimitri tried to get up and help him, but he felt as tired as Riku was even more so since he'd used the machine. He sagged against the seat, taking one last look at the teen before passing out as well.

————————————————————————————

Virgil sighed with relief, having to watch everything that had happened from the dining room, he was now glad that it was over.

"Replica, take us out of here." He told the android.

"Where to Doctor?" It asked.

"The third ring, perhaps if we go deeper the one that resides here won't be able to come after us."

That was what Virgil hoped anyway, for he knew they most likely would not survive another battle with Maldeo. And if the remaining others found out that Riku was here, they would be after him as well.

"Yes Doctor." The android used the master code to spread the metal solution that covered the house even further till it covered every inch. The metallic covering was a shield to protect the house as it traveled deeper into the other planes.

Maldeo watched as the house sunk into the ground knowing he could not follow. The barrier that surrounded this particular place was still too strong and would disintegrate him as soon as he touched it.

"But this place won't hold me for long."

A dark shadow appeared on the ground before him one of the devilish hands he'd used to imprison Riku stretched out from it holding a vial of blue liquid, it shined brilliantly a small light in the darkness of the field.

The hand threw the vial up into the air, it rose, and rose till it struck the blank sky lighting up the entire field of stars.

"You may try and keep me in here Velshdein, but in the end you will not succeed."

He walked back to the castle, an enormous black shadow following closely behind him, two red eyes in the center staring blankly out toward the castle.

————————————————————————————

After one last tug at the lever it finally yielded, drawing backward unexpectedly forcing Leon and Tai to the floor. The medical casket opened with a loud hiss. Leon jumped up, and rushed to Riku's side to check him.

"Is he okay?" asked Tai his voice filled with concern.

"He's fine, his pulse is steady..." Leon paused to check his heart. "Heart-rate is normal."

"What was that?" Sora asked him.

"I don't know." Leon replied.

Sora gasped in pain as felt a sharp pain stab him in the chest, he fell to his knees when the pain started to intensify with one hand holding his heart.

"Are you alright?" Leon asked him.

"I'm fine." He replied somewhat breathless.

As soon as the pain had come, it was gone.

"Are you sure Sora?" He nodded yes to the man, and Leon decided not to press him any further.

————————————————————————————

"It's begun, master." said Dea.

A triumphant smile came across the blonde boy's face.

"Good. Soon I will have my freedom."

————————————————————————————

(A:N Really long chapter I know but I wanted to get as much as I could done here so I wouldn't have to prolong getting to the root of the story any further. Till then Read/Review people!! By the way FOS means Field of Stars, couldn't put it on the chapter title so I had to shorten it.)


	5. The Team Separates

A slender face stared at the steamed mirror that obscured his features from view, a pale hand reached forward and wiped away some of it to reveal the face gazing into the glass surface.

The young male heaved a sigh as he took in his appearance in the reflection; creamy peach skin was slightly damp with the steam that filled the bathroom, his silver hair fell across his shoulders with even shorter bangs falling into his jade green eyes.

The band he normally used clutched tightly in his right hand. A pair of grey jean pants graced his lean form with a white sleeveless shirt adorning his chest.

For the past 20 minutes while he'd been was taking a shower he was trying to convince himself to take Velshdein's offer and not go through with their plan. So far he'd come up with half a million reasons why he shouldn't.

But only one reason why he should, and unfortunately this one was more convincing than all the others.

The sound of the door opening shook him out of his reverie, and just as he started to turn to face the person's arms encircled his waist. He felt a head placed between his shoulder blades. The height of the person was too short to be any of the doctors so he guessed it was his friend, Halo, of course this suspicion was confirmed when the boy spoke.

"Hey."

He smiled, immediately recognizing the voice. "Aren't you supposed to be upstairs?"

"Yeah but…" The arms tightened slight around him. "I was worried about you. You okay?"

Almost instantly the smile disappeared replaced by the same somber expression.

"I don't wanna leave him." He replied his voice breaking, looking down and away from his reflection. "I just… If I die here I will _never_ see him again."

Tears fell from his eyes dropping into the sink. For several moments not one spoke, neither knew what to say. They'd never even considered the prospect of dying; of course they knew it was a possibility but none of them wanted to entertain the notion.

"I promised him… I promised him that I would come back." The taller boy said shakily.

'And now I'm not even sure I can do that anymore.'

"Then go back." His head lifted up looking into the mirror, the only thing visible of his friend was the dark brown hair resting on his shoulder.

"I believe in you and I know you can do it. Just-- please promise me one thing?"

"Anything."

"Promise you'll take me with you?" He chuckled at the request.

"To the ends of the universe and back Halo." He replied softly, a mantra they'd repeated to each since they were children.

______________________________________________

Riku opened his eyes, realizing with a grimace that he was in the same position as before staring at the same ceiling fan, surrounded by the same ugly orange walls.

Riku furrowed his silver brows in bewilderment. 'Something very strange is going on.'

This one particular dream had felt very real, almost as if he was there or had been there.

He thought about going back to sleep and seeing if he could get back into the dream, perhaps continue and see what else would happen. But he decided to sort out the events of the second one before going into another.

'The boy, I couldn't see his face but I remember his voice it sounded like the one from before. He took my pain away. He that told me I had forgotten.'

'But he'd been different this time and so was I, like I knew him or something. And who was the person they were talking about?'

He groaned in frustration, the more he tried to figure the dream out the more questions arose instead of answers.

'This person they keep talking about might the key; everything is about him. If I can find out who he is I can find out why all this is happening and why this freak Maldeo is after me.'

Jade eyes darted to the right side of the bed as a loud snort erupted in the room bringing his attention to Dr. Dimitri and Dr. Virgil, both were lying asleep in recliners. It seemed the loud sound had come from Virgil, as he was emitting various mutterings and grunts every now and then.

Silver eyebrows wrinkled in confusion, 'What a weird guy.'

Riku shook his head and turned away from the two centering his attention back on the dreams.

The dream had also been in the house as well, but that wouldn't make sense. He hadn't met the two doctors until he'd gotten trapped in here.

'Getting help from them won't do me any good, they're too secretive. But if I can get help from one of those robots…' A mischievous grin spread across his face. "Maybe they can tell me what I want to know.'

He slowly pulled away the orange covers care not to make a sound so he wouldn't disturb the two. He swung his legs over to the left side of the bed and stepped onto the cold floor, making a soft creak as he did.

Riku glanced back at the pair hoping the noise hadn't woken them up, thankfully they were still sound asleep. The green-eyed teen stood up and stalked quietly toward the door; with one last look at the two he left room slowly closing the door behind him.

______________________________________________

"They've escaped?!" The Heartless King shouted quaking rage.

His generals feared to speak up not wanting to anger their master more. But their leader Tomoko seemed to bold enough to take the chance.

"Someone else interfered, My Lord, someone we weren't prepared for. But we know where they're going next and we can capture them once they've landed."

"A frontal attack on Disney Kingdom would suicide."

Tomoko eyes flared with anger turning to face Tsineka, his second in command. Although he was supposed to be the leader of the group she almost always refused to recognize his authority.

"Now that they have both Keyblade masters, and this new addition, King Mickey will only call more reinforcements to his aide so that we'll have no chance to get to either them."

"And what do _you _suggest Sin?" She smiled at his bitter tone but nonetheless she did have a solution.

"If Mickey does plan to call for aide he'll need to send a personal messenger. And along with that personal messenger a bodyguard. And when he does we can capture them and find a way to get into Disney Kingdom undetected."

Even Tomoko had to admit it was a good plan, but risky as well. If Mickey realized that his messenger had been gone too long he'd automatically expect foul play and think it was Heartless, and prepare for an attack. But he'd have no way of knowing just how they would attack.

It was risky, but good.

The King seemed to be pondering the same thing as Tomoko.

"Tomoko your objective is still to find and capture the Keyblade masters. Tsineka you may go through with your plan but know that if it fails you will have to face the consequences for it." Both generals nodded in reply. "You're dismissed."

The Six Generals turned to leave, but one of them stayed behind.

His name was Qora; he was the most powerful general in the army. The King's Right hand man.

Of course it was only natural that he trust him, they'd been through quite a lot together.

"I must ask something of you, Qora." He could tell it was serious for him to be calling him by his name. "Surely you've felt it too."

"I—I tried to ignore it." Qora replied. "But it isn't going away."

"The source is focused intently in Twilight Town, I need you to find it and destroy it before it gets any stronger."

"I understand."

"Don't underestimate this thing Qora, even in this state he's still powerful. With one swipe…He could kill you."

________________________________________________

"Wow, Donald hits hard." Leon said, observing the bright pink bruise that now shown as a result of the brutality the magician had given his former student earlier.

"It was only one time; I don't see why he had to get so worked up about it." Tai grumbled, rubbing his cheek.

The two of them walked down the hallways of the castle, heading towards the throne room to see Mickey.

Unfortunately for Tai they'd met Donald on the way going to the meeting; and even worse was that he'd already been told by Sora in an attempt to get sympathy for his new friend that his former student had performed the forbidden spell.

Needless to say the result wasn't pretty.

"Well seeing as the only reason you managed to escape those heartless using that spell was by sheer luck, I'd say that Donald has every right to turn you black and blue." Leon said.

"Oh shut up! Who asked you?" Tai retorted in anger.

Leon smirked. "You'll get over it."

"So what was so important about this meeting that you had to send Sora on some bogus scavenger hunt around the castle?" Tai asked.

"It was not bogus! I really did hide candy all over the place." Leon replied.

"Liar, you hid fruit not candy you just made him think you did so he'd leave."

"Well in my defense it's much healthier for him anyway." Tai rolled his eyes.

Once they reached the double doors leading to the room, Leon paused and put a hand in front of his companion to stop him from reaching for the knob; Tai looked up at the tall man in confusion.

"Before we go in, I need you to promise me something." His tone was grim; his steel gray eyes cold. "Whatever you hear in this room, no matter how much he asks, do _not_ tell Sora anything. Understand?"

"Leon---I don't…"

"I need you to do this for me Tai, no questions asked. Say you won't tell him."

"Alright I won't tell him." He said still confused by the man's actions.

They entered the room noticing immediately that Mickey had made a few adjustments to the throne room.

A large circular table now stood in the center accompanied by several chairs put around the edge.

The king beckoned the two to sit and join him; Minnie sat on the right of Mickey, and Daisy on the left.

Next was on the right of Minnie was Aerith, The three fairies Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, and Merlin. Then last but not least Yen' Sid.

Sitting beside Daisy on the left were Huey, Duey, Louie, and Mr. Scrooge beside a very unhappy Pete.

Tai and Leon sat on the left across from them was Aerith, it was then that the two noticed that she was unfortunately sitting in _between_ Flora and Merryweather.

Leon groaned inwardly. 'This was going to be a very long meeting.'

A small ping echoed in the room. "Hey Leon," Grey eyes turned to Tai.

"Weren't Aerith's clothes pink?"

'Oh no!'

He turned his gaze back toward the young woman; Merryweather was currently trying to convince her that her clothes would better compliment her skin tone if the color was blue.

However Flora, upon noticing the sudden change in Aerith's raiment, disagreed completely and changed the clothes back to their originally color.

This only served to anger Merryweather and the short fairy changed the color back to blue, shouting to Flora that is was no business of hers.

"But blue is such a drab color Merryweather, pink is so much better and so much brighter too." She said trying desperately to reason with her.

"What about him?!" She said pointing a finger to Merlin who jumped in alarm.

By the look on his face Leon could tell the wizard what the man was thinking. That perhaps coming to this meeting and sitting so close to the two fairies was a very bad idea.

"He's wearing blue, I bet he thinks it's a fine color. Don't you Merlin?"

"Umm, I suppose." He struggled to say, not knowing which side to take.

If he took Merryweather's side, Flora would either kill him or turn him pink or both.

"But I'm sure if given the chance he'd gladly wear pink, wouldn't you Merlin?" His eyes grew wide as saucers at her statement.

"No-No I wouldn't thank you." He replied shaking his head violently.

"Well it doesn't matter! She was wearing pink when she got here and she's wearing pink now!" She shouted in fury waving her wand and changing the clothes back.

"No really—It isn't that big of a deal--" Aerith tried to say but again Merryweather interrupted.

"No! You're not stopping me this time Flora, she's wearing blue!" Merryweather waved her wand this time and transformed the color to blue.

The transformation went back and forth so much that neither fairy knew where their spells where going and everyone's clothes where being changed.

Both Merlin and Yen'sid put up shields over themselves to avoid getting hit, however everyone else was not so fortunate.

Pete got hit by Merryweather's spell and his clothes were turned blue. The triplets were hit by Flora turning each of their clothes a different shade of pink.

Leon and Tai ducked under the table to avoid the spells.

"This isn't exactly how I thought the meeting would be." Normally Leon would've laughed at Tai's jest but this was serious.

'This isn't supposed to be happening.' He tried to come up with a way to stop the madness. Hopefully one that didn't include getting hit by one of the spells the fairies were throwing.

Scrooge was most unlucky for he was hit by both, half pink and half blue.

Daisy was hit Merryweather and Minnie was hit by Flora but since they were already wearing blue and pink it didn't make much of a difference. That was until they were hit again, this time by the opposite colors.

"Hmm." Daisy observed the color of blue on Minnie.

"Ohh!" And Minnie regarded the color of pink on Daisy.

"Looks better don't you think?" Said Daisy, with a playful smile on her face.

"You know I always liked the color blue." She replied chuckling slightly.

The fairies fired three spells each in quick succession, all six of them hit the walls and bounced off hitting the corner of the room turning around and aiming straight for Mickey.

It was then that Yen'sid picked the opportune time to save his pupil and drag him away from the oncoming blast using a spell to pull him into the safety of his shield.

"I think it would be best for you to end this fight Mickey," He told the small mouse. "Before someone, namely you, loses your color."

Just as the fairies readied their wands for another flurry of spells Mickey intervened.

"Ladies! That's enough!" He shouted. "We've barely gotten the meeting started and already you're fighting amongst yourselves. We're supposed to be figuring out ways to defeat our enemy, not each other."

The two fairies looked back at each other.

"He's right you know." Flora said shamefully.

"Yeah, I know." Merryweather replied, reluctantly putting her wand hand at her side.

"I'm sorry I called your color drab Merryweather." Flora said, putting her arms out to hug the fairy.

"Oh, don't be too sorry. I suppose… If everything were blue I'd be pretty boring." Merryweather smiled and flew into her friend's arms, hugging her tightly.

Together they turned everyone back to normal, well almost everyone, Minnie and Daisy had requested the fairies leave their colors the way they were.

After they'd cleaned up the mess everyone sat back down in their seats, though Tai could swear that Aerith and several others had moved from their original seating now positioned even farther from the two fairies; but before he could bring this to Leon's attention Mickey began speaking.

"Alright then, now that everything is back to normal lets begin the meeting."

"Now I know you're all wondering why you've all been called here. Several months ago we started to notice that stars were disappearing in the sky much like before when ansem was controlling the heartless and making them take over worlds.

What's more disturbing was that the stars that were disappearing are planets that had already been sealed off from the darkness by Sora."

"I've been trying to find more information about how and why this has been happening but so far nothing has turned up. All we've heard are rumors and we can't be sure if any of them are true."

'That must be the reason why Leon was staying out all the time in the day and coming home at the same time every night.' Tai mused as he recalled all the days he'd asked Leon what he'd been doing at the man cleverly evaded the question

"So what's the plan?" Tai asked.

"We'll to get help as fast as we can and mobilize teams on the worlds surrounding the area to protect them from whatever's doing this." Mickey replied. "Pete and the three fairies will go to each world and assemble a team to help fight off the heartless."

"What?!" Pete said, complete fear and horror on his face. "I have to work with _these _two?!"

"I'm afraid it can't be helped Pete. Now as I was saying, the fairy godmother will work with them from here in case they need further assistance from us.

Leon and Sora will go to Midgar and find the team known as A.V.A.L.A.N.C.H.E. with their help you should be able to find out just who's taking over the other worlds." Mickey took a file and slid it over to Leon who opened the file, briefly looking it over.

"This is a list of who to look for; Aerith was once a part of team A.V.A.L.A.N.C.H.E. so you'll need to talk with her before you leave and get some background information on 'em."

"Sounds pretty easy." Leon said.

"Aerith, Minnie, and Daisy will stay here with Riku to try and help him the best they can. Hopefully we'll find some way to wake him up and then he can join you and the others. Meanwhile Goofy and me will try and get to the worlds that Leon, Sora and A.V.A.L.A.N.C.H.E. can't reach.

Yen'sid, Merlin, Scrooge, Tai, Huey, Duey, and Louie you guys stay here with Donald and protect the castle. Can I count on you guys?"

"You bet Mickey!" Huey shouted.

"Yeah! No heartless is getting in here while we're still kicking!" Said Louie.

"I hate to leave you here by yourselves but with the three of you magicians and help from Huey, Duey, and Louie together I'm sure you can defend against any attack!"

"Meeting adjourned." Mickey announced.

Everyone stood and filed out of the room each going their separate ways.

But Tai as usual followed Leon by force of habit seeing as he was supposed to go with the others.

"Why am I staying behind?" The blond inquired in surprise, walking in time with his quick steps.

"It only makes sense you stay behind to protect the castle. Your knowledge of magic will help the others---"

"Oh that's total bull Leonhart, and you know it! You tell me the real reason why you're making me stay here!" He bellowed, interrupting the brunette.

Leon stopped abruptly, Tai following suit. He slowly turned around and faced him with a look that could only be described as guilt in his eyes.

"This is getting too dangerous Tai. I almost lost you that night and I can't take the chance that I might lose you again."

"No," He said shaking his head. He'd been here before, heard the same words.

"The Heartless are too powerful for you and the next time you get into a fight with them they might kill you,"

"No! Do _not _patronize me, I am not some little kid I can take care of myself." He spat in anger.

He could hear it, the voice of his brother echoing in his head making his heart and his throat constrict.

"Just because you can do magic doesn't mean you can defeat them on your own." The memory was growing stronger, the feeling of déjà vu' coming faster.

"Stop it." Tai whispered burying his face in his hands trying to will the memory away.

"Tai listen to me." He reached for him grasping Tai's wrist.

"Stop it!" He screamed, turning around to run and trying desperately to jerk his arm away. But he couldn't get out of Leon's iron grip.

Leon pulled him closer; Tai's back meeting with Leon's chest as he released his wrist and curled his arms around Tai's waist. The blond struggled in his arms, hitting the man's arms repeatedly with his fist to escape.

"Let go." He sobbed, tears streaking down his face.

"Tai, Tai, please just listen to me its okay." He held the boy close, not relinquishing his grip despite the pain he felt.

"No, no it's not." Tai said his onslaught of punches lessening after awhile.

He leaned back against Leon's chest, turned his head to rest against the man's neck.

"Please don't leave me again. Please!" He begged him.

Tai was like a little brother to him, and as much as he hated to leave when Tai needed him the most he had no other choice.

He let out a sigh and pulled the blond closer. He couldn't tell him what he wanted to hear but he could at least comfort him for now.

Riku walked through the hallways of the mansion looking at each room for the small bots but he could find no sign of them. He'd been wandering around the house for hours and now he was beginning to think he was going around in circles.

Nothing seemed to look like it had when he first started walking, yet it was all oddly familiar.

"Ahh!" He cried out in exhaustion, fisting his hands in his hair and leaning his back on a nearby wall, sliding down against the smooth surface.

'This house is going to drive me mad.'

After sitting there for several moments the wall behind him started to creak.

He paid no attention to the strange noise passing it off as the house just being plain old; until a big chunk of the wall behind him started to give way and then pulled itself upward from into the ceiling.

"Huh? Whoa!!"

He fell through the new opening with nothing to support him and his head hit hard on the metal floor.

"Ow!!" His hand went up to his head massaging the lump that had formed.

Jade eyes now stared in between two rooms, one with a silver ceiling and one with a wooden one.

He stood up turning back to look at this new room regarding it with surprise and apprehension.

Inside he couldn't see very much since there was no light to show what the room housed. It was an eerie darkness, but he still couldn't fight back the need to see what was inside.

'Curiosity killed the cat, Riku.' He scoffed at the voice, it reminded him so much of jiminy his conscience. 'But then again I'm no cat.'

He said to himself before entering the room.

The moment he did the wall came down on him and closed with a hiss sealing him within and yet he didn't feel afraid. He stepped further and ceiling lights came to life illuminating the entire place.

Lining the walls were several computers and bookshelves; most of the books were worn and old and many of the computers looked as if they hadn't been used in years.

Although one computer in particular was still on with the bright light of the monitor focused in the center of the room.

He glanced to the center of the room taken aback at the strange giant glass tube of water that lay there. The bottom was covered by an organic metal that seemed to have grown onto the glass; the top portion of the tube climbed higher until it went into the floorboards of the ceiling. It had to stretch throughout the entire center of the house.

'Wait a minute that spoke on the roof. That must've been this thing.'

"Power output at 3. Returning core generator to main conductor." The mechanic voice seemed to come from above him inside the tube.

A dim light seemed to be coming from the top glowing brighter as it came closer descended down into the bottom of the tube. Riku covered his eyes with his sleeve to protect them from the blinding light.

The light was frighteningly intense but then all at once it dimmed down to a dull shimmer.

His arm fell to his side, his eyes entranced by this new appearance. A small humanoid creature now stood inside the container, his hands moving over transparent screens splayed across the glass tube. From the absence of clothes Riku could tell what gender he was.

His white skin glowed in the green water, silver hair floating serenely above him in the water. Gray eyes intently focused on the task in front of him, it seemed he wasn't aware of Riku's presence.

One last button was pressed and all at once the movement of the fingers stopped and the android closed his eyes, dropping its arms to down, shutting down.

Riku frowned in sadness; he'd hoped the machine would've been able to tell him something about this place and what was going on.

He sighed in disappointment at yet another dead end, walking back to the wall to see if he could find a way out.

Surprisingly enough the wall opened the moment he came close to it and came back down once he was out.

With one last look at the wall he headed down the hall rounding another corner and continued his journey through the mansion; making a note in his mind to visit the place once more later.

As he passed through the endless labyrinth of rooms he caught a glimpse of the small robot that he'd seen the other day in the dining room.

He paused and walked back, upon further inspection Riku realized the room was actually a library.

Tall wooden shelves lined the walls housing what must've been at east 10,000 books maybe. A large window was centered in the middle of the shelves, sunlight shining through it filling the room with a bright ambient glow.

"Good morning, Mr. Riku." The baritone voice had caught Riku by surprise.

He looked down to see the robot standing in front of him holding a book in its mechanical hands.

"How did you---" He shook his head. "Never mind, look I need to ask you some questions. But you can't tell the doctors about this, Okay?"

"As you wish, Mr. Riku." The robot replied.

He chuckled. "Just Riku." The robot looked confused, but nodded all the same.

Riku put his hand on the side post of the door looking to his left and to his right before entering the room and silently shutting the door.

"Come on." He said his voice lowered to barely a whisper.

He walked toward one of tall shelves with the robot following closely behind him.

"Is it possible for them to hear us if we're this far away from the door?"

"That would require a hearing ability that is beyond their physical limits." Gear replied.

"Okay, now there have been some strange things going on around here. Most of them are centered around the belief that I'm someone I'm not. So I need you to tell me are there any other people traveling with the doctors in this place?" Riku asked.

"I will search my memory banks…" Gear paused, silver eyelids closed over the blue orbs of the robot.

After a moment they shot open, with Riku restlessly anticipating the answer.

"No."

"What!?" He replied with confusion.

"There have been no persons traveling with the doctors Velshdein and Muchnut after their imprisonment here." Gear said simply.

Riku growled in frustration, running a hand through his. Yet another dead end, unless… 'Maybe I'm not phrasing my question right.'

If he remembered correctly Dr. Velshdein had said that he'd condemned two souls to death, so maybe they weren't still here at all.

"What about those traveling with the doctors prior to being trapped in here?"

The robot closed its eyes once again and a moment later opened them.

"My records show that there were two people traveling with them prior to being trapped in here." He smiled triumphantly.

"Great! Who were they?" Riku asked anxiously.

"My records show--"

"Riku!"

Riku winced slightly at the sound of the familiar voice calling his name and turned to find Dimitri standing in the doorway.

"Yes?" He answered.

"May I speak with you for a minute?" The question implied no argument.

Riku begrudgingly complied and followed the man out of the library. Away from Riku's only source of useful information

'So close.' He groaned inwardly.

The doctor led him down a long, empty hallway; in front of them was a door one he assumed led back to the room. Riku was immediately surprised when Dimitri opened the door and he walked into a room he'd never seen before.

The walls were painted a light gray, across to his right was a bed, a nightstand, and a tall dresser. Much like that in Virgil's room, but the furniture was mostly black, with the sheets of the bed being gray and white.

He looked to his left to see another door, on the one side was a large desk with a computer, a phone, and other tools he'd never seen before. On the other side another desk full of beakers, Bunsen burners, chemical bottles, and other various tools.

"Oof!" Riku gasped as he hit a hard, solid form.

While Riku had been surveying the room he hadn't stopped following Dimitri, this had led to Riku's body colliding with the doctor's back once Dimitri paused in his stride.

He moved away from the doctor once he noticed the close proximity, he hadn't realized the man was so strong. Any other person, Riku included, would be fooled by the sickly look that held his features from a day-to-day basis.

The shock from the collision had focused his attention to the situation at hand and Riku found he could hear the faint sound of water. He leaned to his right to see what the man was looking at and saw the white marble balcony situated right in front of them. Dimitri walked forward and placed a pale hand on the white rail, leaning against the sturdy structure.

Riku wasn't sure if he should follow suit, but did so anyway. Upon coming closer to the balcony he now had a clear view of the great body of water in front of them.

So they were sailing.

'That would explain why it felt like the house was swaying earlier.'

"I know it's hard to adjust here. I realize that keeping things from you hasn't made it any better either." Dimitri glanced at his companion only to find the boy had suddenly taken an interest in his hands.

He sighed. "But it's for your own protection Riku. The less you know the better."

Riku scoffed. "How am I supposed to protect myself if I don't know what's gonna come after me? You can't watch me every minute of every day Dimitri."

"I can try."

"Look I don't need your help. I can take care of myself just fine." He replied defiantly.

Dimitri scoffed. "Like you did last night?"

"Screw you! If you hadn't locked me up in that stupid room and just let me help maybe I wouldn't have had to try to escape." The blond spat back in anger.

"I did that to protect you." He replied turning away.

"Why?! What is it about me that everyone thinks is so important?"

"It's not about that!"

'Then what is it about?!"

That unfortunately was the last straw.

Suddenly Dimitri whirled around and grabbed Riku by his arms. "I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!!" He bellowed to the teen.

Riku stared at the man, his jade eyes widened in shock at the sudden outburst; he was so stunned that he couldn't find it in himself to argue with the man anymore.

Anger marred the man's usually calm face and yet, deep within his tired blue eyes Riku could see the same sadness as before when they'd been talking in the dining room.

Dimitri heaved a sigh letting his gaze fall to the floor, he loosened his grip on Riku's arms but did not let go.

"I can't--" He began. "I can't lose another person to Maldeo. I just can't." He said letting the last part out in a whisper. "I wish I could tell you more, make you understand, but the less you know the better."

He released him turning back to look out at the waves crashing against the house.

Something Riku said had struck a sore chord inside Dimitri.

"Dr. Velshdein—I—I didn't mean to--"

"Just go."

Riku obeyed his request; he strode over to the door but paused just before opening it. "I really am sorry for what I said."

And with that the silver haired teen left the room to search for the library; the sound of the door closing and the click of the lock told him Dr. Velshdein had no more to say.

__________________________________________

"I want you to know I don't like leaving you behind." Tai scoffed in disbelief at Leon's statement.

"Yeah thanks for letting me know." He watched as Leon took clothes and weapons, along with several chemicals and packed them into his bag.

"Are you sure you're alright after what happened earlier?" Tai asked.

"Of course, don't be ridiculous, I'm a soldier. I can take a punch." He replied.

"I meant what happened with Yen Sid's hat."

Leon paused for a minute thinking back to the incident.

--Three hours earlier—

"There you are Leon! It's been boring around here." Sora shouted with glee as he rushed to the man's side.

"Tell me you haven't gotten yourself into trouble while I was gone?" Leon said sardonically.

"Aww come on. Don't you have any faith in me?" A brunette brow raised in suspicion.

"Okay so I might've gotten me and Mickey into a little trouble."

"You _and_ Mickey?" He repeated in confusion.

"Well see there was this really big mess in the hall, and Mickey said we should clean it up quick but I told it'd be much easier if we used Yen Sid's hat and well--- It kinda escalated from there."

"Where's Mickey right now?" Leon sternly.

"He's in the hall trying to catch Yen Sid's hat." Sora replied.

Leon rolled his eyes, releasing an aggravated groan. "Take me to him!"

Sora nodded and ran back the way he'd come, Leon and Tai following closely behind.

"Just so you know it's going crazy and shooting spells everywhere! One of the spells turned Goofy into a rabbit. I thought we'd have to change his name to Thumper but a second later he changed back, he said it felt real weird but fun."

"If this was so bad why didn't you get Yen Sid to stop it? It's his hat!" Tai shouted.

"Well Mickey said that if I did he'd hit me with his keyblade, and that things pretty hard."

"Well of course it is! His blade is made out of solid gold." Said Leon.

"Yeah you're right." Sora said pausing for a moment. "Why isn't mine gold?" He said thoughtfully.

"SORA!!" Leon shouted

"Oh! Right." Sora blushed and started his sprint again.

"There it is!" Tai said as they neared the sight of the hat floating in air shooting spells at random.

"Be careful, don't let it hit you. There's not telling what'll happen." Leon warned.

"Don't worry Leon the effects are only temporary." Sora said.

"Leon!" The young soldier turned to see Mickey running hurriedly toward them.

"Leon! Whatever you do, don't get hit!" His warning however came too late for Leon, Tai, and Sora for they had gotten much too close to Yen Sid's hat.

With several quick strikes of lightning the three were hit and subsequently knocked out.

**--**Three hours later--

"Oh! That. Yeah I'm fine. Just have this strange craving for peaches that's all."

"You should've let Daisy and Minnie check you, you know that hat can do dangerous things to people once the power gets out of control."

Leon smirked. "I'm perfectly fine. Besides staying here any longer will only delay our mission, and it won't change the fact that you can't come with us."

Leon could've sworn he saw the blonde's eyes widen slightly for a moment before narrowing to slits.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Leon smirked.

"I think you're the one who should get checked out, both me and Sora look fine. Your hair turned three different colors before it settled on silver."

Tai instinctively touched his hair before realizing that Leon was looking at him and snatching his hand away.

"Well be safe on your trip. And don't do anything stupid." Tai said harshly as he turned to leave.

"You know if I had really wanted to leave you behind I would've done it in Twilight Town."

Tai stopped at the door and for a moment Leon thought he would say something. But his hopes were let down as he watched the boy leave the room and closed the door behind him.

Leon sighed in dismay and continued packing.

After finishing he zipped up the small suitcase and started to take it out of the room except something in the back of his mind told him not to leave just yet.

He frowned and looked down at the suitcase. Something nagged at the back of his mind, an insistent thought that told him he should open the book given to him by Mickey and read it.

He bent down and reached into the side pocket fishing out the book; upon opening it to the first page he saw the same thing as before, mindless equations and drawings. But the more he stared at it the more he started to understand what the book was saying.

'When a source of two or more equal measures of this chemical are brought together with a large source of pure energy the mixture of the unstable chemical and the controlled power source will cause the chemicals to fuse. This fusion will cause the impurities inside the chemicals to be purged creating a source of regenerative energy.' Leon slammed the book closed.

"Impossible." He whispered softly. Leon had never been able to comprehend the book's scientific lingo before; he'd always needed the help of Mickey. And even then there were something's the king himself didn't understand.

'Could it be—Because of that blast from the hat?' His thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock at his door.

"Leon! You ready yet?" Sora shouted through.

"Almost." Leon shouted back, he tucked the book away in his suitcase making a mental note to look through it more closely later.

___________________________________________

"We've weakened the outer rim," Dea told his master who smiled happily in turn.

He'd been trying for centuries to destroy the outer ring, who knew the very person who trapped him inside would be the one to help him do it?

"But I fear the shield might try to regenerate itself. What will we do then?"

"Don't worry so much about just one; we have to think about all the others as well." Dea frowned.

"The others, Master?" He asked.

"Destroying only one ring won't grant me true freedom. But if I weaken all of them then the orb will collapse." He replied.

"Is that why you let them live? So you could drive them further inside?"

"Of course Dea. Although I hadn't counted on them going so far, my other counterparts will find them." The young boy looked down at this chains and tried to lift his right arm.

Even as powerful as he was in the end he only managed to raise his arm a few inches away from his chair before it fell back onto the armrest with a loud clank.

"Still so strong and heavy." Maldeo murmured. "But not for long."

The inhuman creature looked up at his servant Dea, even though the mask of shadow obscured his face from view he could still feel the burning gaze of hatred, and anger coming from his eyes.

"I know you think I'm cruel, demented, and evil. As you should, I've done horrible things to accomplish my ends. So why do you do these things for if you despise me so much?" He asked him.

Dea turned his face away, not wanting to look into the cold red eyes anymore.

"You of all people shouldn't have to ask me that, I have no choice. If I want to keep them safe I have to. And because… thousands of innocent people shouldn't have to die for one man's mistake." Dea replied.

"You think it was a mistake to try to destroy me?"

"I wasn't talking about Seiya, I was talking about _you_." He retorted boldly.

Maldeo smiled at his brashness, Dea's fear of him kept his servant in check. But at the mention of his brother, Dea would suffer any pain to defend him.

"Judge me if you wish Dea," He said turning to look out the small window at the top tower. "But no one will ever understand why I have done all this until you have seen the world through my eyes."

"Perhaps we have seen the world from _your_ point of view; we just had more compassion than you did."

(A:N Sorry it took so long, all fans of my other story Vincent must Die you can rejoice. Cause I have the newest chapter ready for your hungry eyes. Also those who like Shadow Fantasy there's a new revised edition of chapter two. Please read/review makes me write faster.


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